Coffee or tea?
- Thread starter Jon
- Start date
Tea.
But I'm very fussy about it. It has to be Assam tea - no blended crap for me, thanks. And it has to be made with boiling water. If the kettle comes off the boil, that's no good. I like a strong flavour, so I let the tea brew for a couple of minutes, but I also like a decent amount of milk. And people who put the milk in first... we should never speak of such evils.
I do drink coffee - Saturday mornings are spent in my local coffee shop - where I have 2 large soy lattes and a BLT. Without fail. They serve the best coffee I've ever tasted, and everyone in the town agrees.
But I'm very fussy about it. It has to be Assam tea - no blended crap for me, thanks. And it has to be made with boiling water. If the kettle comes off the boil, that's no good. I like a strong flavour, so I let the tea brew for a couple of minutes, but I also like a decent amount of milk. And people who put the milk in first... we should never speak of such evils.
I do drink coffee - Saturday mornings are spent in my local coffee shop - where I have 2 large soy lattes and a BLT. Without fail. They serve the best coffee I've ever tasted, and everyone in the town agrees.
When I was still employed, coffee was necessary to my ability to handle work problems. I had my systems all set up to be self-maintaining in terms of cleanup, monitoring and reporting tasks, backups, ... just about any software maintenance except patching. They sent me e-mails summarizing the previous nightly activities and analyses. But without that coffee, I was dreadfully slow in the mornings if anything came up.
Now? I'll drink coffee only if we happen to be out for breakfast, which isn't often. I usually drink tea and prefer a blended tea. But in some Oriental restaurants, if they have it, I will ask for jasmine tea. I have tried other teas including lapsang souchong, Earl Gray, and a few others - but they do little or nothing for me.
Bee - you didn't say whether you sweetened your tea before adding milk, but you are technically correct to speak ill of those who add milk first. Doing so interferes with the ability of your sweetener, whatever it is, to be dissolved and to thus permeate the liquid. The natural lipids of milk decrease the solubility factor for anything else added later.
Now? I'll drink coffee only if we happen to be out for breakfast, which isn't often. I usually drink tea and prefer a blended tea. But in some Oriental restaurants, if they have it, I will ask for jasmine tea. I have tried other teas including lapsang souchong, Earl Gray, and a few others - but they do little or nothing for me.
Bee - you didn't say whether you sweetened your tea before adding milk, but you are technically correct to speak ill of those who add milk first. Doing so interferes with the ability of your sweetener, whatever it is, to be dissolved and to thus permeate the liquid. The natural lipids of milk decrease the solubility factor for anything else added later.
I am slow in the mornings too and feel like a zombie until I have had a coffee at my local coffee shop. Also, I occasionally like a Jasmine tea. I don't like conventional tea with milk though.
It has always puzzled me the logic behind putting milk in first. It just reduces the temperature so you can't dissolve sweeteners.
It has always puzzled me the logic behind putting milk in first. It just reduces the temperature so you can't dissolve sweeteners.
Both effects, actually. Coefficient of solubility depends on the composition of the solvent AND is affected by temperature. (The chemist in me suddenly rises to the top.) Adding cream affects the chemical composition of the solvent and lowers temperature, so adding cream first is a double whammy. I would have to read the label and think hard about it to know whether non-dairy powdered creamer affects the composition of the water + tea in a way to interfere with sweetener solubility. Since it is non-dairy, I'm inclined to say "no effect" or "less effect than dairy."
I don't drink warm beer. Actually, if you get right down to it, I don't drink cold beer that often either. First, with liver issues that include non-alcoholic sources of cirrhosis, alcohol isn't welcome in my diet. But second, when I was a young musician on Bourbon Street, I decided I didn't need to be the middle-man. Beer goes in yellow and foamy, comes out yellow and foamy. Before or after, if you let it set out uncovered for long enough, it starts to stink. So I gave up beer.