Your ViewsKeep your e-mails pouring in, it's good to know that there are lots of you out there with views and opinions. To help you work out what is what, are now little icons to help you see biscuit related themes. And now you can see at a glance which are the most contested subjects via this graph (requires Flash 6.0 plugin). Please keep your mails coming in to nicey@nicecupofteaandasitdown.com | If you like, you can use this search thingy to find stuff that matches with any of the icons you pick, or use the fantastic free text search, Yay! | Your e-Mails |
Kate Allen |
dear nicey,
i love the site but am dismayed by your verdict on the Two-Cups-Per-Teabag issue. this is wrong, manifestly wrong and uncivilised, and not what i expected from such an esteemed tea-conoisseur. i use TeaDirect fair trade teabags, one per mug. the packet quite clearly says 'one per mug' too! mind you, the mug i drink from is rather large and i like it that way - perhaps two teabags is suficient for less vat-like cups.
sometimes i drink Earl Grey and that definitely requires one bag per mug cos it's not the strongest flavour in the world to start with and those of us who like it nice and strong with not much milk need to give the teabag a good swirl to get a decent-sized mug out of it.
i don't use Yorkshire Tea so maybe it has just escaped my attention that some brands ARE designed for two cups per bag. what if you only drink tea alone though? seems a bit needlessly cruel to singletons. perhaps they could dry the teabag out and re-use it? i don't fancy that though.
yours indecidedly,
kate,
london
PS. on the issue of how long to leave the bag in for, i swirl it round for more than 'a few seconds' - more like 30 seconds to a minute at least (depending on how badly i'm trying to put off going back to my desk). i like it strong you see, but not stewed (where bits of tannin-y crap appear on the top - yuk!). leaving the bag in long enough to get lots of flavour but taking it out just before it hits 'the tannin barrier' is a skill which takes a long while to acquire, as my non-tea-savouring boyfriend is learning through trial and (mostly) error. i have pointed him towards your site in the hope that this will advance his education a little.
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Nicey replies: Kate,
Its not manifestly wrong, as it is manifestly possible for people who like their tea a certain way to use one bag to two mugs. I would not be after a second go on your bag if it were at the cusp of producing stewed tea, would I? Remember NiceCupOfTeaAndASitDown defends peoples right to make tea how they like it. |
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Rob Byatt |
Dear Nicey,
We get Yorkshire tea, teabags nowadays. Its states on the front of their packets that one teabag makes two mugs of tea. I can confirm this. I too used to be an extravagant one bag per cup man. I didn't believe one bag properly stretched to two cups. Now it seems Yorkshire tea have specifically
designed their bags to make two mugs. Or it could be that their tea bags were extra strong in the first place (which seems more likely come to think of it) and the two mugs per bag boast is a cunning marketing ploy. Trust those yorkshire types to be careful with their tea.
Rob
Newcastle |
Nicey replies: Well it just so happens in our 'Summer lets try some different tea bags' oddessy, that the Wife opened up our pack of Yorkshire Tea Bags this morning, sent to us by Taylors for evaluation. I did notice that they looked fairly large. I'll try my new cramming one onto a spoon and nodding sagely test in a little while. Also from Yorkshire, Bothams sent us some of their very nice Resolution tea bags which worked well and they easily made two mugs.
BTW We were up in Newcastle a little under 2 weeks ago, thats an awful lot of bridges you have there.
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Nick Q |
Dear Nicey
Just to add to the debate, I was under the impresssion that almost all teabags produced these days were designed for the mug. The teabag manufacturing companies have resigned themselves to this fact, despite whatever "serving suggestion" may adorn the packaging. This is how most tea is made these days. The tea in teabags is "designed" to release it's colour and flavour as quickly as possible so the mug drinker knows the bag has done it's work, can hoist out the bag after a few seconds, burn his/her fingers, make a mess on the top of the flip-top bin and be off on their merry way. Release of colour and flavour in a few seconds is of less importance to the more up-market brands (Twinings etc.) as they expect more of their bags to be used in pots, hence the rather disappointing mug performance of the more costly bag.
I, of course, speak from a position of absolutely no authority on this matter.
By the way, I agree with Katie, my personal preference is one bag per cup.
Nick
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Jim Fussell |
Nicey,
I'd like to stick up for Katie a little. I am a one bag per cup man, not because I am a man of infinite tea resources, but due to the fact that surely the second cup made will be of superior strength and quality. Also, I have always heard the theory when making a pot of tea, that x+1 bags should be used. Where x is the number of cups required. This is even more excessive than the one bag per cup method employed by Katie.
One thing I can't disagree with however is the main ethos in all tea making matters. Make it how you like it. In fact I think I will...right now. Excuse me.
Jim.
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Nicey replies: Jim,
I hear what you are saying but I think its one 'spoon' each plus one for the pot. As I said teabags tend to be a bit generous so I think that equation may not hold true except for people who have big teapots and like strong tea. In a very scientific test I've just scrunched a Pyramid bag onto a teaspoon and it looks like a heaped spoonful. Perhaps other people could estimate the contents of other bags?
I would say that because the flavour of the tea leached from the leaves changes as the tea brews due to higher molecular weight tannins being released, then the second cup can taste different if both are not made in quick succession. Again as with all tea matters personal taste is every thing here, but for the Wife and I the teabag is only in the mug of boiling water for a matter of a few seconds to get it to how we like it nice and refreshing. |
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Katie Drummond |
I am disappointed that the judgement has gone against me, but I did hold you up as the ultimate arbiter, and so I must bow my head and accept your decision.
But I don't want any of you thinking that I'm about to start recycling teabags. My pride may be dented but my standards are as high as ever.
Keep on composting!
Katie |
Nicey replies: You make it how you like it Katie. Hoorah! for and your decadent one bag mugs.
Mind you, when an imminent tea bag famine approaches as can happen from time to time in offices, for instance when the person who sorts out tea bags etc leaves or is made redundant, then doubling up on tea bags becomes a important survival technique. |
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