Tea

[MrEd]

What a wonderful thread, thanks for Toddy for starting this discussion, it's been fascinating to read up on everyone's tea drinking habits.

It's a hard one to explain, but I always take great comfort from a nice cup of tea. I drink it in various forms throughout the day. I go big during the mornings and usually have a good strong tea on the go (just a splash of milk). I probably average a cup per hour, but I ease off after lunch and mix things up a bit with some Darjeeling (the Champagne of tea!), Earl Grey or even some herbal teas. Chamomile is nice, but I almost always end the day with a cup of peppermint tea (it's good for digestion).

Yorkshire tea is my go-to brew and have it in tea bags and loose leaf form. I also have a weird and wonderful selection of teas from various independant outlets that I pick up from the local markets and farm shops in my area.

I can thoroughly recommend adding a small pinch of lapsang souchong to your normal everyday blend of tea as it brings a lovely smokey aroma to your brew. I like to do that when out camping.

Red bush tea (or Rooibos) is a lovely option if you fancy a good de-caffeinated tea. Goes well with or without milk.

Chai tea is a wonderful thing to enjoy if you fancy something sweet and works well when you fancy dunking a biscuit.

My brew kit is probably one of my most prized posessions when out camping and often something that I refuse to compromise on when going on my more minimalist adventures. I usually opt for loose leaf tea. Aside from tasting better, it's also easier to dispose of the used leaves as opposed to a tea bag. Oh and I always use Nido milk powder with my brews on camping trips. Milk powder often feels like a bit of a compromise, but Nido is s full fat milk powder and seems to taste so much better than the other variants. I also use Nido in my porridge (yes I can hear the Scots and porridge purists screaming at me already!!).

I like rooibos with no milk and a thin slice of lemon

 

[Toddy]

I admit that I'm fond of peppermint tea too, and rooibos and chai

Stuart posted a thread 20 years ago, about the benefits of sitting down and brewing up, when lost out and about.

Thread 'Survival is all about a good cup of tea'

Dec 18, 2005

This is an idea which I suppose was born from a conversation I had with Mors about a year ago. we were sitting by the fire discussing Mors favourite beverage coffee, when we came to the conclusion that as long as you had what you needed to make a cup of coffee/tea/hot chocolate you could make yourself very comfortable in the wilderness.

I thought back to this conversation recently whilst trying to form a lesson plan for teaching civilians (not survival/bushcraft enthusiasts) preparation and initial action plans for becoming lost in the jungle.


"FOR GOD'S SAKE MAN, DO SOMTHING!"

The...

• Stuart
• Replies: 190
• Forum: Bushcraft and survival skills

• 

Tea; good stuff

 

[Pattree]

I used to enjoy chai in Ethiopia when I needed a break from their very strong boona (coffee). It usually came as clear Sidama tea. In the bottom of the glass would be a centimetre of sugar and a top stratum of sticks and leaves of spices.

The hard part was persuading the cafe/restaurant not to put any sugar in mine.

I’ve tried chai here in UK but neither the tea nor the spices are the same.

 

[widowulf]

I love black tea and rooibos tea, but I dont have a preference how to drink, sometimes sweet, sometimes not, sometimes milk, sometimes not... my morning coffee I drink always darkstrongblack.

 

[fielder1963]

It isn't widely known that tea is grown, not just blended in Cornwall, it's very expensive though.
I get ridiculed for how I like tea. Very weak, with just a tiny, half teaspoonish of milk.

 

[Chris]

It isn't widely known that tea is grown, not just blended in Cornwall, it's very expensive though.
I get ridiculed for how I like tea. Very weak, with just a tiny, half teaspoonish of milk.

The correct way to have tea is however you most enjoy it.

 

[slaine_23]

It isn't widely known that tea is grown, not just blended in Cornwall, it's very expensive though.
I get ridiculed for how I like tea. Very weak, with just a tiny, half teaspoonish of milk.

Interesting snippet of info thanks, and a quick search informs it should be possible to grow tea in Ireland and the Uk, even in the garden or in woodland.

 

[Toddy]

I have grown a single tea plant in my garden here in Lanarkshire.

It wasn't a happy plant, but I was reassured that it was possible because there was a fellow busily promoting his own Scottish grown tea.....and it was blooming expensive stuff....turns out he was a fraud, and was buying in tea and tea plants to sell on and claiming it was all Scottish grown The Police
caught up with him.

Man jailed for three and a half years over £500,000 fake Scottish tea fraud

A fraudster who earned more than £500,000 by deceiving luxury hotels and stores into buying "unique" Scottish-grown tea that was actually imported, has been imprisoned for three and a half years following a prosecution by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).

www.scottishfinancialnews.com

So, yes, you can grow tea here, but it's not easy, and to be honest I was happy with the fresh picked leaves, made good tea, but there weren't a lot of them.

It died one wet Winter

 

[Pattree]

……. ands there is a lot more to tea than tea leaves.

 

[Toddy]

……. ands there is a lot more to tea than tea leaves.

There certainly is; it needs careful drying and handling, but truthfully, having done all that and also having picked the leaves straight off the wee bush, both methods made really nice tea.

 

[slaine_23]

I have grown a single tea plant in my garden here in Lanarkshire.

It wasn't a happy plant, but I was reassured that it was possible because there was a fellow busily promoting his own Scottish grown tea.....and it was blooming expensive stuff....turns out he was a fraud, and was buying in tea and tea plants to sell on and claiming it was all Scottish grown The Police
caught up with him.

Man jailed for three and a half years over £500,000 fake Scottish tea fraud

A fraudster who earned more than £500,000 by deceiving luxury hotels and stores into buying "unique" Scottish-grown tea that was actually imported, has been imprisoned for three and a half years following a prosecution by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).

www.scottishfinancialnews.com

So, yes, you can grow tea here, but it's not easy, and to be honest I was happy with the fresh picked leaves, made good tea, but there weren't a lot of them.

It died one wet Winter

To be honest I doubt it’d work for me so fair play you managed it at all - I don’t know what the opposite of green fingers is but I am sadly afflicted that way. Except for grass, briars and dandelions, I could kill any plant even bamboo. Still, might give this tea thing a go if can find a dry enough place in garden that might work.

 

[Toddy]

I've been giving serious consideration to trying again.
I reckon that if I start it off comfortably on the cold kitchen windowsill, and then pot it up in a big pot, but one that I can still lift, and make sure it never gets waterlogged, then it ought to grow like an Azalea.

It's the 'never let it get waterlogged' but that's hard here. Lanarkshire is sodden wet most of the year, and when that freezes.....

 

[slaine_23]

I've been giving serious consideration to trying again.
I reckon that if I start it off comfortably on the cold kitchen windowsill, and then pot it up in a big pot, but one that I can still lift, and make sure it never gets waterlogged, then it ought to grow like an Azalea.

It's the 'never let it get waterlogged' but that's hard here. Lanarkshire is sodden wet most of the year, and when that freezes.....

Yeah, similar here in Donegal, wet shallow clay on top of rock. Might not be as good as over with you. One bit of garden couple of (wet soil hating) apples trees seem to be doing okay as on a draining slope. Couple of olive trees in containers have lasted 8-9 years, the drainage appears key.

 

[Toddy]

We're on heavy Lanarkshire blue clay. Makes great tiles and bricks...and under that is a seam of coal, then sand, clay, coal.....the clay is fertile enough if you can get it open with organic matter, but we live right alongside a burn, and the garden is always wet.
It's when plants get really sodden and then freeze, and then thaw and freeze again and again. That really does kill things.
Native trees are fine with it, and I get really good crops, but things like the tea plant didn't do well.