h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is the most cruel thing i've ever heard done to a tea bag.

Is it as cruel as saving the used one's for cat toys? hmmmm?

I have made and drank Sassafrass tea. Very nice stuff -- kinda like root beer or birch beer.
But in later life, I have not because I understand it has herbal properties as a blood thinner
and I would prefer to research a bit before starting up again.

Here is another form of tea which my father used to eat. As a jesture of hospitality from North Africans he visited, a cup is two thirds filled with peanuts and then a thick layer of sugar is added finally topped up with tea. He said he actually grew to like it. But then he was a North African Missionary Doctor!

There should be a Tea Bag Protection League. Future generations will be appalled by our total disregard for them. Microwaving Tea Bags should be outlawed.

Hey Stu is that you? Or are you a different Stu altogether?

im must confess! about what a wuss i am when it comes to tea... i only like it if its really, really weak with lots and lots of milk and loads of sugar. Plus i dont like drnking it when its REALLY hot so i leave it for a bit untill its sort of luke warm. Oh what an embaressment i am to the whole of England.

That horrible scum often found on the surface of a cup of tea is caused (or so I have been told) by various minerals in the water combining with polyphenolic compounds (tannins) which are mildly acidic. If you add a stronger acid (eg lemon juice) this causes various changes in the phenols and stops the scum happening. It also causes a bathochromic shift, turning the tea yellower. So to avoid scum on your tea add a slice of lemon to raise the pH.

I've grown up and lived in a hard water area all my life, and I think that makes a difference to the taste of the tea, too. Whenever I travel, the water tastes 'wrong'.
Consequently, I believe that the best tea can only be made in places with really hard water, like Portsmouth in the UK.

Has anybody else got preferences for the water used?

I like clean water

Me too
I don't like strong tea/ tea with no milk or sugar/ too hot tea....
Should I go and commit suicide now?

yes I think its in everyones best interests if we end are sad pathetic lives right now......... um, as soon as one of my pages has been accepted.

If you get cremated then, can you get buried in a tea urn?

...Or mixed with tea, and served at a party.

I think that a mass suicide would be a good idea
but i don't think that being buried in a tea urn is a good idea!

hmmm... flipwinky-tea. sounds tastey even if i do say my self.

i think that being cremated and being made into a perfect cup of tea by d adams would be a pretty fine way to go.

My main tea-related problem is that my accustomed mug just doesn't cut the mustard, so to speak. It is most often either empty or inconveniently situated.

I want a new mug with legs, capable of refilling itself.When I want some tea (as I do now) I want my cup to runneth over.

hmmm... there should be a chat room where you can cyber-tea with people on the 'net.you could tell each other how you like your tea and how your drinking right now! oh what fun.

Scotch, now there is something that should definatly be the colour of good strong tea. Of course, from my point of veiw they are both diuretics, which is not wholly a bad thing. I feel that all of the raw ingredients of urine should be brown, this allows you to check its ultimate colour and so whether it is being processed appropriately. Now if you will excuse me, I'm off for a cuppa.