Depends on time of day. Cup of tea first thing (Yorkshire of course!), then decent fresh coffee in the morning then tea in the afternoon.

 

Her gig was rubbish, then?

 

Tea...the downfall of the British Empire......

Wife drinks tea, I hate the stuff, have since I was old enough to know. It's made of dead leaves, FFS, coffee is made of fresh beans.....

Wife goes mental in France, ask for tea, it comes with water off the boil, hot milk etc etc. So she drinks chocolate, another evil brew.

 

You're a wrong 'un

 

Catherine Tate over new year I saw

Hopefully they'll ditch Miranda soon

 

Sorry alcazar, but I'm with F1 on this.

You 'traitor'... Off with his head!

 

+1 I need to wait about 6 mins by default because I can't take really hot drinks I always burn my mouth if I try.

Only thing i'd add is make sure you empty the old water out and stick fresh water in the kettle and of course bone china cup.

Asda "chosen by you" Assam is pretty good too.

 

But are we not missing the one factor that can alter the flavour of a hot drink, be it tea, coffee or choclate/cocoa?

The water.....

Some areas the water is horrid anyway, so how you can make a decent cup of anything is beyond me.

 

Fair point.

Also, the initial temp of the water when it first makes contact with the substrate.

Not sure what it should be for tea (guessing dead on 100C)?

But for coffee, IIRC, it should be exactly at 94C (or is it 96?). One of the two.

 

Water for tea should be 85C

Anything less than boiling will do though, however I never let my water boil, always pour before it boils and always change the water for fresh each time.

Luckily the water where I live is fantastic drinking water so starting from a good position

 

I didn't realise the ideal temp was so 'low'.

I always use fresh water. But am prob guilty of whacking it in as soon as the kettle switches off. So may be a bit too hot?

I think Leic. has medium water (in terms of hardness)? How would soft, medium or hard water affect the flavour? What's the science?

 

Um, sorry, but the tea leaves are picked fresh, just like coffee beans.

The process is thus:

Plucked, withered, rolled, fermented, dried, sorted, graded, packed.

Coffee beans are roasted after picking, so not fresh anyway.

 

Yorkshire water is the best in the country.

 

I'd rather drink a tramps ****, than drink a cup of coffee.

 

lol!

And if it happened to be Special Brew, you'd also still be able to get pissed too!

 

If I'm not working I'll smash 20 plus mugs of tea in a day. Love tea.

Coffees rank. People who smoke and drink coffee are double rank.

 

+8

 

Who likes Earl Grey? I've just had a mug, and it is truly revitalising. I know I should have used my bone china tea set with gold painted cups with saucer to drink Earl Grey, as drinking Earl Grey in a Tesco mug is an insult to Earl Grey. It's like dressing up Richard the 3rd in a shell suit, I know. But due to the impact of post- modernism my tea set went to Oxfam shop ages ago. I still like Earl Grey sometimes, though.

 

Swati, you get better every day girl

 

I drink bit of chai or lapsang at mates house. Builders tea at home..

I've just learnt pokoe means inner leaves of plant, it was the name of plantation in Magoebaskloof we been to couple times in SA.

 

Goodmorning, Duke Chip. <bows>

I'm only politely bowing etc. because I'm still under the influence of that posh Earl Grey tea. Usually I say- "Hola, Chip, MATE! Howya dooying, me bud? What did mrs. Chip get from Aldi sale today, bud? 2 German beers for 75p.? Sorted. Cheaper then Tesco value lager, mate". thumb:

I suggest everyone should start drinking Earl Grey, then there's a hope for this world to become a better place one day.

 

Tea smells like dead badgers ****. Just the thought of it makes me retch.
Coffee smells awesome, but tastes like hot **** and brake fluid.
I quite like hot chocolate but its too much faff to make a decent one so I dont bother.

 

So basically you have no taste and are lazy