Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: [OT] About tea

Recently a friend of mine brought me some tea from England. I found it
sensibly better than, say, Twinings tea being sold in Italy. 
How do you Brits residing in Italy like the tea we have? I suspect that
even tea of the same brand is better in England than abroad. Are you
content with Twinings or what? 
P.S. Mary, don't you say you don't like tea: I'm thinking of you mainly.
(smiling face)
Bye, FB
-- 
"The doctors found out that Bunbury could not live, that is what I mean—so
Bunbury died."
"He seems to have had great confidence in the opinion of his physicians."
("The Importance of Being Earnest", Oscar Wilde)

 sensibly better than, say, Twinings tea being sold in Italy.
In compenso in Inghilterra e in America hanno il Parmigiano tarocco.
:-)))
Tschüss,
Enrico il Pentolaio
-- 
(visita il mio sito: 
http://members.xoom.it/srw
)
_____________________________________
"La parola e' lo specchio dell'anima. Appena un uomo parla, rivela cio' che
e' " (Publilio Siro)

 Parmesan, you mean :)

 content with Twinings or what? 
Detesto il te'. Dammi un caffe', ben corretto se fa freddo fuori.
-- 
"The past resembles the future as water resembles water"  Ibn Khaldun
My .
mac.com
 address is a spam sink.
If you wish to email me, try atlothian at blueyonder dot co dot uk

 (smiling face)
Actually I rarely drink it; I much prefer coffee, and I never drink the
English sort with milk.
I occasionally drink Earl Grey with lemon, that's all, so I can't say
whether tea in Italy is better or worse than in England.
I don't think people usually make it properly with a teapot here,
though, do they? It won't taste the same if you just dip a teabag in the
cup.
-- 
Mary

  I never drink the English sort with milk.
Instead I always drink tea with a drop of milk, but I think I am the only
one in Italy.
:-))
Tschüss,
Enrico il Pentolaio
-- 
(visita il mio sito: 
http://members.xoom.it/srw
)
_____________________________________
"Ricordo che un mio saggio amico era solito dire:" Cio' che e' un affare per
tutti, non è un affare per nessuno"." (Izaak Walton)

 cup.
That sparks a question: exactly which is the best way to make tea? I usually
just warm some water in the cup in the (gasp!) microwave... but since I love
tea I'd like to make it properly.
Any advice?
Tang :)

 You should, of course, have a knitted tea-cosy to keep the teapot warm.
Sorge un dubbio. Se si usa il tè sfuso, non in bustine, che senso ha tenere
in caldo la teiera? Voglio dire, il tè dopo dieci minuti sarà caldo ma
imbevibile, no?
Ciao, FB


> You should, of course, have a knitted tea-cosy to keep the teapot warm.
That's the cutest part of the whole thing :)
Tang.

 It won't taste the same if you just dip a teabag in the cup.
Un'ultima domanda: mi risulta che l'acqua non debba essere in piena
ebollizione. Come si riesce a ottenerla con un kettle, un bollitore? Non ne
ho uno, ma immagino che fischi quando l'acqua bolle decisamente.
Bye, FB
-- 
Mrs. Palmer, in her way, was equally angry. 'She was determined to drop his
acquaintance immediately, and she was very thankful that she had never been
acquainted with him at all'. (Jane Austen)

 tea I'd like to make it properly.
It depends how weak/strong you like it.
I'm no expert, but the basic method is to boil the water (freshly-boiled
water is essential), put a drop of boiling water in the teapot and slosh
it round to warm the pot, then throw out the water.
Put as much tea as you need in the pot (the old rule, before teabags
were invented, was one spoonful for each person and "one for the pot",
ie. 4 spoonfuls for 3 people, etc.).
Then add water and leave the tea to "brew" for a few minutes, depending
on how strong you like it.
There's a lot of controversy over whether you should put the milk in the
cup before the tea or vice versa; in my family we put the milk in first,
but I gather that's considered very low-class in some quarters.
You should, of course, have a knitted tea-cosy to keep the teapot warm.
-- 
Mary

 riferisci al tč con l'aroma di limone?
A me dispiace invece, devo *riempirlo* di limone affinchč mi piaccia :)

"Mary Cassidy" <ma...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:41FCD8BA...@invalid.invalid...

My family here in the US is Irish-American, and we all got our craving
for tea from our parents, who came from Ireland. When I was a child,
the family made tea as Mary describes, but without the cosy. It seemed
like there was always a kettle whistling on the stove for tea.
Eventually even my parents adopted the tea bag. Nowadays we rarely
make tea with a pot, although everyone has a teapot and a tea service,
and the traditional "tea cup" is considered too small by most people.
A kettle of boiling water and a tea bag is the norm. A little milk is
added after the tea has brewed. If I am in a hurry, I put a tea bag
and a cup of water into the microwave.
Within five minutes of arriving at any relative's home, you will hear
the host or hostess ask, "Does anyone feel like a cup of tea?".  Of
course, we drink a lot of coffee, too, but usually in the morning -
American coffee, with cream, not milk, and never "instant" coffee. A
few family members have invested in exotic and expensive Italian
coffee makers, more as a status symbol than anything else. Guests
always prefer American coffee. The only time I ever have espresso now
is in New York Italian restaurants.
I don't recall ever drinking tea in Italy. I always drank espresso,
often laced with a little Grappa. In the mornings I liked a frothy
cappuccino.
I seem to recall that in Milan, they never said "cappuccino", always
"cappuccio". Is that still the case?
Joe from Massachusetts

 "cappuccio". Is that still the case?
Both are fine. I do like "cappuccio" but, if it's not quite unfashionable
(can a word be unfashionable?), it's getting there.
Bye, FB
-- 
"It sounds appalling!"
"Interesting and appalling. The others just sound appalling!"
(Cold Comfort Farm, the film)


In the train station in Milan I heard everyone ordering "un
cappuccio", so naturally that was what I ordered. I don't recall ever
having heard the word used anywhere else in Italy (except perhaps
during one of my frequent visits to Franciscan abbeys).     :>)
I thought maybe it had something to do with the fact that residents of
large cities don't like anything which sounds diminutive, so naturally
they would avoid "cappuccino" in a large city like Milan. So it wasn't
an ego thing, just a linguistic quirk?  :>)
Joe from Massachusetts

 imbevibile, no?
Che differenza ci sarebbe tra usare il té sfuso e le bustine? Bisogna
usare la teiera in entrambi i casi.
Molte persone dopo aver bevuto le prime tazze aggiungono altra acqua
calda, e eventualmente altro té, alla teiera.
 
-- 
Mary

 "cappuccio". Is that still the case?
Most barmen in Milan still say "cappuccio" in my experience. 
-- 
Mary

 usare la teiera in entrambi i casi.
Le bustine si possono togliere. Con le foglioline, l'operazione richiede
pazienza e... qualche giorno. Forse se, come dici, si aggiunge dell'acqua.
Però... c'è un però: con il tè sfuso si può versare due tazze su tre,
diciamo, e potenzialmente non filtrare mezza foglia di tè, o filtrarne più
del dovuto. Ah, cercherò pubblicazioni dettagliate in merito. (faccina
sorridente)
[...]
Ciao, FB
-- 
Just as I thought. Another test that could have cost us our lives, saved
only by the fact that I am enormously well-bred.
(Murder by Death)

 content with Twinings or what?
Non mi piace molto Twinings, ma invece Yorkshire Tea di Taylors of
Harrogate. Mi piace più il tipo normale perche il tipo d'oro ha un sapore
troppo sottile. Mi sembra che il té italiano e come gli altri tipi di mass
market ma ammetto che non ho un gusto raffinato per te, preferisco un tipo
robusto. Bevo té nero con latte e té verde senza latte o limone, è sempre
senza teabag se sia possibile.

 It depends how weak/strong you like it.
I make tea in exactly the same way as Mary, right down to the low-class,
milk-first method. Personally, I don't care which goes in first as long as
the milk is not added to the same container in which the tea is brewing. (I
don't know if this is true for all of England, but in the North they say
"stains steep, tea brews.") I actually get a visceral feeling of schifezza
if I see milk poured over a wet teabag. (So I'll do it myself every once in
a while on a day that seems too mundane.)

 You should, of course, have a knitted tea-cosy to keep the teapot warm.
One thing I remember of the frightfully dull "Gosford Park": Kristin Scott
Thomas, a noble lady, has the waiter/butler/dunnowho pour the milk in her
cup of tea before the water. Bob Altman appears to have always been very
keen on details.
Bye, FB
-- 
"What meaning of this, Mitter Twain?" "I will tell you, Mr Wang, if you can
tell me why a man who possesses one of the most brilliant minds of this
century can't say his prepositions or articles"
(Murder by Death)

 Enrico il Pentolaio
bye
Gennaro 

 Bye, FB
oh, maybe I'll get a cup of tea now...
ciao
Gennaro

 content with Twinings or what? 
Having a cuppa with a business executive in his office in St. Albans (just
north of London) some 20 years ago he asked me, knowing that I had flown in
from Switzerland where I was staying at the time, why it was that in
Switzerland tea tasted differently than at home. Was it the milk, he
speculated?
It was three things, I figured.
1. In restaurants on the Continent you mostly get those god-awful tea bags
containing the sweeping off the factory floor after the day’s work in the
tea factory.
(This doesn't answer your question why the same tea tastes different in
Italy, but the following does)
2. The water is different, much more chlorinated in London than on the
Continent. Even disregarding the chlorine concentration, water’s taste can
vary from one place to another depending mostly on its mineral content.
3. Yes, the milk can make a difference; it can taste differently and/or
have a higher fat content. Furthermore, in many parts on the continent you
do not get served milk in a little jar. Instead, you get one of those
little plastic containers with aluminium seal containing not milk, but
"coffee cream", which of course gives an entirely different taste to the
tea.
-- 
Xakero

 ho uno, ma immagino che fischi quando l'acqua bolle decisamente.
L'acqua deve definitivamente avere bollito prima di fare il tč. Mentre tu
fai girare un po' d'acqua bollente nella teiera, svuoti la teiera e
aggiungi il tč, la temperatura dell'acqua nel kettle cala leggermente, a
circa 90 gradi Celsius.
Per il tč inglese fa poco differenza se l'acqua sia ancora bollente o meno
quando lo versi sui fogli di tč, ma con il delicato tč verde giapponese si
percepisce la differenza. Per di piů, certe sostanze preziose nel tč
verrebbero distrutte a 100 gradi.
-- 
Xakero

 but I gather that's considered very low-class in some quarters.
QUOTE
 The legend of the custom of drinking tea with milk has its roots not in
taste but with economics. The long journey from the Orient made tea
prohibitively expensive. Milk, on the other hand, was cheap and became the
condiment of choice among the lower classes. The amount of milk added
became a telltale of one's social standing. The wealthy took their tea
undiluted. The middle class poured the expensive tea and then diluted it
with milk. The lower class filled the cup with cheap milk and then added a
splash of the costly tea.
UNQUOTE
Source: 
http://snipurl.com/cezk
Personally, I like a drop of milk in my so-called English tea, and I pour
that drop before pouring the tea. No sugar, thank you.
A chemist would give us an incomprehensible lecture about the different
chemical reactions when you add a hot liquid to a cold one, or a cold
liquid to a hot one. Suffice it to say that adding the hot tea to the milk
results in a better homogenisation. The difference in taste of the final
solution is barely perceptiple, but adding the milk to the tea tends to
leave an oily film on the surface, sometimes even some white speckles.
On top of that, there is the question of expediency: pouring the milk fist
obviates the need to stir the tea. 
-- 
Xakero

 on how strong you like it.
There is more to it than just the strength of the tea.
Tea leaves contain both caffeine and tannin. During the first two minutes
after the hot water has been added, only caffeine gets extracted. From the
third minute onward, while the caffeine extraction continues the extraction
of tannin and other substances also takes place. For this reason, a
5-minute tea tastes completely different from a 2-minute tea, not the same
taste more stronlgy, more intensely, but an entirely different taste.
There is more. Tannin lines the stomach wall and strongly inhibits the
absorption of the caffeine. This is the reason why a tea extracted for only
2 minutes has the stimulating effect of a coffee, while an "older" tea can
even produce a sedating effect.
Add a little milk and the tannin-milk combination also aids digestion, or
so they say.
-- 
Xakero 

 Personally, I *hate* tea with milk
[...]
Ho appena scoperto che una tazza di tè con un cucchiaio da cucina di latte
parzialmente scremato non è affatto disgustosa. Ne ho bevuto un sorso senza
zucchero: puah!
Ciao, FB
-- 
"Gli americani sono ignoranti per loro stessa natura",
that is "Americans are naturally ignorant"
(Paolo Bonardi's opinion - it.cultura.linguistica -
http://snipurl.com/7ryg
)
More? 
http://snipurl.com/c92q

 circa 90 gradi Celsius.
[...]
Questo mette d'accordo chi dice che l'acqua non deve essere bollente e chi
dice che deve aver bollito. Non avevo pensato a questa possibilità...
Ciao, FB
-- 
"I saw something nasty in the woodshed!"


 verrebbero distrutte a 100 gradi.
Interessante!
Il tè senza latte non andrebbe bevuto troppo bollente,  potrebbe far 
male.
-- 
This is an automatic signature of MesNews.
Site : 
http://www.mesnews.net

 male.
Č sconsigliabile anche fare paracadutismo senza paracadute, prendersi a
martellate sulla testa senza motivo e stirare i vestiti prima di averli
tolti.
Ciao, FB
-- 
"It sounds appalling!"
"Interesting and appalling. The others just sound appalling!"







Io non riesco proprio a bere bevande bollenti. Bevo il tè dopo almeno
cinque minuti. 
Mi sono dimenticato di dire che è pericoloso anche imitare Tafazzi senza
l'apposita protezione:
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/fb83/tafazzi1.mov
 (1,43 Mb)
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/fb83/tafazzi1.avi
 (482 Kb)
Ciao, FB
-- 
L'importante è che risplenda tu, sola primadonna e immarcescibile leggenda
del tuo pianerottolo.
(Lucangel su it.cultura.libri)

 an ego thing, just a linguistic quirk?  :>)
A Trieste c'è anche il "cap(p)o"
-- 
Today no, tomorrow yes.

 Non è un reato in Inghilterra?
... piu' che altro, essendo Earl Grey aromatizzato al
bergamotto, il limone ne cancella la caratteristica
peculiare - a questo punto, se il bergamotto non
piace, tanto vale usare un te' nero non aromatizzato
e metterci meno limone...
... a meno che non si cerchi proprio di ottenere
un te' al limone con una nota un po' speciale,
e' ovvio...
... si capisce che Earl Grey e' il mio preferito...?
--
Gnomo
(...any way the wind blows...)

 sensibly better than, say, Twinings tea being sold in Italy.
... FWIW, Twinings tea bought in Britain tastes to me (Italian, living in
Rome) just the same as (the same kind of) Twinings tea bought in Italy
- both brewed at home.
I guess water can make a major difference in taste, though, because
water in different areas tastes very different even after being boiled.
I should add that different kinds of tea need QUITE different water
temperatures and brewing times - the most difficult I've ever found
being Gunpowder Green, just a few seconds or tenths of degree
between "delightful" and "blaaargh".
HTH


 between "delightful" and "blaaargh".
How should one know such things?
Bye, FB
-- 
"Are you sure an embryo parson should have a plane?"
"Everyone should have a plane!"


 How should one know such things?
... lots of "blaaargh", mostly....
:-)
seriously, there must be some serious "tea"
website on the net, I suppose...


 website on the net, I suppose...
Ne ho trovato uno che parlava di gradi farhenheit per i vari tipi di tè. Mi
sembra improbabile che uno debba mettersi a misurare la temperatura
dell'acqua per fare il tè...


 Ne ho trovato uno che parlava di gradi farhenheit per i vari tipi di tč. 
URL, per favore.
-- 
Xakero



http://snipurl.com/chm9


 
http://snipurl.com/chm9
Intersting!
They actually do say that for some types of tea (oolong and green tea) the
water should not be brought to the boiling point. I tried it once and
didn't like the taste. I always let it boil, then leave it for a minute or
two before pouring it onto the tea leaves. 
Nor do I ever bother with pouring the tea from a brewing pot to a serving
pot; never heard of it before, in fact, though it does make sense: you get
the same taste from the first cup to the last. I've never seen it done in
Britain, not even in posh places; must be an American variation, or just a
recommendation of this particular tea merchant in order to sell more:
"decant" the tea and throw out the suds, instead of adding hot water after
filling the first round of cups.
-- 
Xakero