INTENSITY²
Start here => Games => Topic started by: "couldbecousin" on March 03, 2016, 07:45:13 AM
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Her Majesty often sends me to fetch the tea :cbc: :tea: so I do know a bit about it.
Post here about tea ... buying it, brewing it, sipping it, savoring the flavors. :tea:
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Montreal is full of tea snobs who distinguish themselves from the English by drinking "tisane" which is just herbal tea. Tea shops actually flourish here. There is one in Northampton, MA that I used to frequent, and there was one in Orlando that closed within a year of my finding it.
Wolfish is not a fan of coffee, which smells to him like burnt beans. But tea (except for ones flavored with bergamot) smells wonderful. He has been drinking tea since childhood. For some reason even though he like lemon in my iced tea he cannot tolerate bergamot. Since it has some of the same stuff as grapefruit juice it's likely that the dislike is a good thing.
I prefer David's Tea shop as opposed to Tim Horton and Tevana. Tim Horton always has long lines and Tevana sold me a half liter glass of ice with which they included about a 100ml of tea. In the tea shops here you can have them mix you a tea blend. I bought something called Guava Cadabra that was full of fruit and needed no sweetener. By far my most favorite tisane. But I am most a fan of black teas. I had to hunt for the good ones in Orlando but here I can just go to a store and get them.
Mostly I drink breakfast tea, but I also like assam and orange pekoe. For Christmas Py got me an electric kettle which has temperature settings so that I can brew my tea at the right temperature. It also means that I don't destroy any more tea kettles on the stove, which used to be an annual occurrence.
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I like Chai.
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Me too.
Kind of difficult to find decent tea in Indiana. Thank god for the internet!
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Yogi Chai is nice.
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Love my loose leaf Lapsang Souchong tea in the morning! Thank the Great Old Ones that I can find it on the internet. The rest of the day, Orange Pekoe or English/Irish Breakfast suits me just fine! 8)
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Yogi Chai is nice.
Best Chai indeed.
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Dilmah Rose French Vanilla is an absolute treat I think.
Pitty the shop where I bought it does not carry the Dilmah brand any more. Found another that does, but they do not have this variety.
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I don't like tea aromatised with any other fruit than citric fruit. Really detest all the cherry, strawberry and such teas.
During the day, mainly English blend, Ceylon, Orange Pekoe (Called Dutch blend here nowadays) and (Russian) Earl Grey. Chai is nice in the evening.
Do like blends with cinnamon and ginger in the mix.
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Yogi Chai is nice.
Black, green or that sweet blend?
I like the black only. The sweet blend is a mistake, IMO. And green? I just don't like green tea.
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Yogi Chai is nice.
Black, green or that sweet blend?
I like the black only. The sweet blend is a mistake, IMO. And green? I just don't like green tea.
Green tea is an acquired taste. When I was a kid I had an odd obsession that led me to use everything in a culturally appropriate way. This meant that I learned to use chopsticks as a child, and to drink the green tea they served in restaurants without any sugar in it (my mother put sugar on everything to make us eat it - so awful). So now I can distinguish green teas from one another. There are some that have citrus in them and are quite nice, and then there are some that are from the U.S. that taste like sewer water.
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I can't stand green tea, I really can't.
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They had decent tea at the hotel but not decent water.
My first taste of decent tea made with decent water was at a diner in Toronto. I thought it must be the tea and bought some to take home. Lol, they were serving Lipton in the shop. There is a difference between what they send to the U.S. and what they send here. But I didn't know that so I bought Stassen Gold - life changing experience.
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It used to be that the smell of Earl Grey tea made me feel like being sick, let alone the taste of it.
Then I had ECT and afterwards upon my arrival back home, Mum started making tea and my mouth started watering at the smell of Earl Grey tea. Mum made me some and I have loved it ever since.
I wonder what makes taste so individual. Why do some people like peppermint, for example, while others hate it?
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It used to be that the smell of Earl Grey tea made me feel like being sick, let alone the taste of it.
Then I had ECT and afterwards upon my arrival back home, Mum started making tea and my mouth started watering at the smell of Earl Grey tea. Mum made me some and I have loved it ever since.
I wonder what makes taste so individual. Why do some people like peppermint, for example, while others hate it?
Have had a few changes like that. Wouldn't eat rice until early teens, couldn't stomach eggs during adolescence through early thirties, and in the last couple of years have completely lost the appeal of most all seafood. It's weird.
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I have a hard time with sugar now so I tend to "dilute" my store bought iced tea with brewed tea, and I've gone from 3 packets to one or none in cheap cafeteria tea.
When I am not feeling well I still like green tea. For some reason it it less nauseating than other things and it doesn't need any sugar at all. Most of the green tea I buy already made is kind of disgusting, but if I make it myself it doesn't taste like dishwater.
i am pretty sure that cross wiring is the reason i don't like bergamot. either that or because it's a perfume oil.
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I have some boxes of teabags here in the apartment, I may take up drinking spicy tea :tea:
in the evening in place of desserts. It would be a good new habit to help me lose weight.
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Earl Grey, Constant Comment, Lipton tea bags, apple/cranberry and peach/passion fruit.
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Peach tea sounds delicious. Likewise orange and Bengal Spice. 8)
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Thank you for the reminder. I had put the kettle on but forgot to make myself some tea.
Darjeeling?
Maybe.
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Lipton ice tea powder made up, tastes just like the ready made bottled drink.
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Again, here, not much of a green tea. I do have some loose leaf green tea in my collection, but favourites are white teas and lady grey, only I make the latter using a hot infusion of freshly picked lemon balm and sweeten with a little honey. Absolutely divine. Especially when the balm is picked in flower, so the nectar helps sweeten.
Not a fan of earl grey, but lady grey is nice stuff. Had another good one recently, a black tea, flavored with some sort of rose extract. That was pretty good and didn't need anything else to improve it. But white teas have always been my favourite, or lady grey made with balm decoction, can't buy that as one product, but lemon balm is a member of the mint family, and as such will spread like plague in a middle-ages slum, given half a chance it will take off and make a run for it, to the extent that its best grown in pots, or if in the garden, harvested pretty aggressively. Otherwise it'll take over given the slightest chance.
Easy to grow, and it helps smooth the tea out, because it contains compounds that inhibit GABA-transaminase, an enzyme that breaks down GABA, the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the CNS. So it has a calming, gently sedative type effect. More of a relaxant, perfectly safe, and has even been used by herbalists for treating fractious babies.
As far as taste changes go I've had a few. I used to like cointreau, but now I can't bear even the smell of it, the very thought of it makes my stomach twitch. And synthetic strawberry flavors. Used to tolerate them if not LIKE them, now I don't eat the likes of strawberry yoghurt, candies, drinks. Used to detest sandwiches, no matter what was in them, a texture mismatch type thing I think. In my first secondary school, I used to squash them into a ball and slap them up against the bottom of the table so I wouldn't have to eat them. Now, I don't mind them and actually make one if I'm hungry and its all there is.
Didn't use to be able to stomach vodka as a kid, I gagged at the thought even before opening a bottle, now I can drink it by the bottle, downed in one and not so much as bat an eyelid. But cointreau...I'd throw up if I tried to drink it.
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Dilmah has a nice black tea with roses and vanilla. Where I used to buy it they threw Dilmah out of their assortment. Have tried other black teas with roses, but none was as good as the Dilmah.
Lestat, how old were you, when you tried vodka for the first time?
Didn't use to be able to stomach vodka as a kid, I gagged at the thought even before opening a bottle, now I can drink it by the bottle, downed in one and not so much as bat an eyelid. But cointreau...I'd throw up if I tried to drink it.
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9-10.
Had a friend about that time that shocked pretty much everyone. Damon his name was. Myself and several friends of mine had seen him take a bottle of spirits and drink it like water. I think he was about 9 at the time.The cointreau thing was earlier, too much, monster hangover, never wanted to be within a mile of it again, ever.
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in florida the tea assortment was much larger.
wouldn't mind something calming today, drunk with a good friend.
tea is good for that.
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in florida the tea assortment was much larger.
wouldn't mind something calming today, drunk with a good friend.
tea is good for that.
Now I picture you having a tea party with the gopher. (http://elacengineering.org/favicon.ico) :tea: :tea: :gopher:
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Hey ! I , too, am up for being drunk with a good friend, wolfish . :eyelash:
But can we skip the tea? i just can't stand tea.
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in florida the tea assortment was much larger.
wouldn't mind something calming today, drunk with a good friend.
tea is good for that.
Now I picture you having a tea party with the gopher. (http://elacengineering.org/favicon.ico) :tea: :tea: :gopher:
Just be warned, I've been known to wreck a tea party. :zoinks:
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in florida the tea assortment was much larger.
wouldn't mind something calming today, drunk with a good friend.
tea is good for that.
Now I picture you having a tea party with the gopher. (http://elacengineering.org/favicon.ico) :tea: :tea: :gopher:
Just be warned, I've been known to wreck a tea party. :zoinks:
If you start to get rowdy, you will be escorted out. :police: :gopher: :police:
Either that, or the wolf will impose discipline! Don't piss off the wolf! :gopher: :loup:
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in florida the tea assortment was much larger.
wouldn't mind something calming today, drunk with a good friend.
tea is good for that.
Now I picture you having a tea party with the gopher. (http://elacengineering.org/favicon.ico) :tea: :tea: :gopher:
Just be warned, I've been known to wreck a tea party. :zoinks:
If you start to get rowdy, you will be escorted out. :police: :gopher: :police:
Either that, or the wolf will impose discipline! Don't piss off the wolf! :gopher: :loup:
Judging from the company he keeps, I'm guessing he likes a little rowdy. :zoinks:
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i have in my possession the perfect thermos of iced tea. not too sweet, strong flavor and chilled to perfection.
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i have in my possession the perfect thermos of iced tea. not too sweet, strong flavor and chilled to perfection.
Is it lemon-flavored? :lemon: I sometimes like to drink Pure LeafTM with lemon flavoring.
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I buy these in bulk:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sunita-Org-Lemon-Juice-250ml/dp/B00URRR4VE/ref=pd_lpo_325_bs_lp_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&refRID=MB8B8HVPMX48V1M5VKMT&th=1
Though prices go way up and down all the time. I got them at about £1.80 each. I add it to water. Tasty. :)
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I buy these in bulk:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sunita-Org-Lemon-Juice-250ml/dp/B00URRR4VE/ref=pd_lpo_325_bs_lp_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&refRID=MB8B8HVPMX48V1M5VKMT&th=1
Though prices go way up and down all the time. I got them at about £1.80 each. I add it to water. Tasty. :)
Nice. My former landlady used to squeeze a fresh lime into her drinking water. :)
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A few have mentioned Liptons tea on this thread. To the English, this is life support tea and is only used to keep life signs going when you first arrive abroad and haven't managed to find stocks of the real thing.
Imagine a killer whale stuck on a beach and people are pouring cups of water over it to stop it from dying? Those cups of water are what Liptons tea is to the British. They will keep us alive until a google search finds a local stockist of British ex-pat stuff.
When I was stranded in Pennsylvania last year I did find a store with Tetley tea bags which although it's 10 steps up the ladder from Liptons is far below the quality I'm used to. Thank god the hotel had a proper kettle suppligin proper boiling water. But it kept me alive for two weeks. Just. It was touch and go.
Once had nowt but Liptons for 8 days in a Catalonian hotel. But I was young and was mostly able to substitute its place in my diet with more beer and wine.
PS. Tea comes from a tea bush. Shit that looks like twigs and taste like fruit is not tea. It's an infusion.
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i use organic or fresh squeezed lemon in my tea.
pure leaf has deteriorated from tasting like actual tea to tasting like sugar water with coloring in it.
tim horton's has taken its place for me.
my taste in tea changed when i went to toronto as an adult. i found stassen gold, which i hoarded and drank slowly. initially i thought the water was the difference. but even the lipton's is better here and it's the tea. back in the states i started buying imported tea. my favorite at that time was pg tips as it was widely available and inexpensive for someone who at that point drank a few pots a day.
tea with no tea in it is called tisane here. most of the women who drink it make it sound like some exotic (read snooty) drink. i do drink chamomile in my black tea and i also drink green tea, as well as tulsi, which is an herbal tea that doesn't interfere with medications the way the others do. i bought some stuff called horchata which i may try if i can ensure there is no barley in it. i don't mind calling other things tea, since other cultures have other names for it, including the chinese, who cultivated the type that was brought back to great britain. at that point there were green and yellow teas as well as the roasted kind. there were also some leaves and twigs that were designated by the chinese as tea. not sure where white tea came from but that's one that i drink on rare occasion. so i guess to be perfectly accurate we'd have to say real english tea.
we can call the leaves and twigs from other places gopher tea. gary can make up a variety that is fresh for 15 years and sell it to preppers.
a company named true lemon makes a powdered lemon juice that i carry with me so i don't have to carry liquids on airplanes or in my backpack. i also put lemon in my water and in pepsi. i've had it, but sunita isn't always available here and amazon canada sticks hefty delivery fees onto even the cheapest things.
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I find it amusing that in some places "herbal" is said without the h. Here in Aussie land we say the h.
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'erbal teas are disgusting, with or without the h.
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I don't see the point of fruit tea. It just smells amazing, and tastes of nothing.
Plus they use flavourings, even in the organic stuff. It's way better for you (and far tastier) to just use a bit of fruit juice in hot water. :M
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"Herbal" and "herb" have the "h" dropped in my speech for as long as I can remember. It may be a New Orleans cooking thing with our French heritage. But I say the "h" in "heritage".
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I don't see the point of fruit tea. It just smells amazing, and tastes of nothing.
Plus they use flavourings, even in the organic stuff. It's way better for you (and far tastier) to just use a bit of fruit juice in hot water. :M
A friend of mine who lives in Chile owns a tea shop. He was one of the first to import fruit tea to the country, apparently.
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I don't see the point of fruit tea. It just smells amazing, and tastes of nothing.
Plus they use flavourings, even in the organic stuff. It's way better for you (and far tastier) to just use a bit of fruit juice in hot water. :M
A friend of mine who lives in Chile owns a tea shop. He was one of the first to import fruit tea to the country, apparently.
I dunno, it seems too convenient. I mean he's gonna advertise his tea shop, isn't he?
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I find it amusing that in some places "herbal" is said without the h. Here in Aussie land we say the h.
Well, that's just wrong. :M :P
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I don't see the point of fruit tea. It just smells amazing, and tastes of nothing.
Plus they use flavourings, even in the organic stuff. It's way better for you (and far tastier) to just use a bit of fruit juice in hot water. :M
So fruit tea doesn't taste as good as it smells? I'm sorry to hear that. :-\
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I don't see the point of fruit tea. It just smells amazing, and tastes of nothing.
Plus they use flavourings, even in the organic stuff. It's way better for you (and far tastier) to just use a bit of fruit juice in hot water. :M
A friend of mine who lives in Chile owns a tea shop. He was one of the first to import fruit tea to the country, apparently.
I dunno, it seems too convenient. I mean he's gonna advertise his tea shop, isn't he?
He's done well, actually.
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I don't see the point of fruit tea. It just smells amazing, and tastes of nothing.
Plus they use flavourings, even in the organic stuff. It's way better for you (and far tastier) to just use a bit of fruit juice in hot water. :M
A friend of mine who lives in Chile owns a tea shop. He was one of the first to import fruit tea to the country, apparently.
I dunno, it seems too convenient. I mean he's gonna advertise his tea shop, isn't he?
He's done well, actually.
When did he start? Fruit tea was a hype when I was a teenager, more than 35 years ago.
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I don't see the point of fruit tea. It just smells amazing, and tastes of nothing.
Plus they use flavourings, even in the organic stuff. It's way better for you (and far tastier) to just use a bit of fruit juice in hot water. :M
A friend of mine who lives in Chile owns a tea shop. He was one of the first to import fruit tea to the country, apparently.
I dunno, it seems too convenient. I mean he's gonna advertise his tea shop, isn't he?
He's done well, actually.
When did he start? Fruit tea was a hype when I was a teenager, more than 35 years ago.
10-15 years ago. Something like that.
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Not ALL herb teas are awful. One that isn't is balm tea (Melissa officianalis), lemon balm, and a bit of lime zest and juice added.
Very refreshing in hot weather. I use it to flavour tea, as in actual tea, C.sinensis tea-tea but also on its own. Just fill a jug full of freshly picked chopped balm, its nicest of all when its in flower and a mixture of old leafy growth and flowering steps, along with freshly sprouted young leaves is used.
And another, is to be made from a mushroom. Fly agaric, Amanita muscaria, it tastes, and smells, like meat. Its pure, distilled essence of umami in effect. The mushrooms HAVE to be dried first over a long duration very low heat oven flame, so low it almost goes out, at least overnight, best done crispy dry, that will break with a snap rather than exhibit bending. This converts a neurotoxin, ibotenic acid, into the psychoactive isoxazole compound muscimol via decarboxlation, since ibotenic acid is quite unstable. In sub-psychotropic quantities it makes for an excellent flavouring for meats cooking and when used as a psychoactive or herbal medicine (for it can be used for both, the quantity determining effects) it can be taken as a tea, and when this is done, brewing it up by simmering the preserved mushrrooms in water the smell in the kitchen is overpoweringly savoury, meaty but sweet.
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That was my point. The fresh ones made out of real fruit and herbs ARE good. The stuff in the shops are mostly just teas with maybe some dried fruit or herbs PLUS flavourings.
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I buy only a few herbal teas, and avoid the ones with hibiscus.
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I don't see the point of fruit tea. It just smells amazing, and tastes of nothing.
Plus they use flavourings, even in the organic stuff. It's way better for you (and far tastier) to just use a bit of fruit juice in hot water. :M
So fruit tea doesn't taste as good as it smells? I'm sorry to hear that. :-\
the herbal tea we get here is quite good. The fruit tea I have is a blend of dried fruit otherwise it may be that I could make them from juice, but where would I find blueberry juice in the amount needed to make a few cups of tea? I do dry my own fruit which is better for making blends and doesn't go bad like juice would. Today I am having Tulsi tea. It has Holy Basil in it. It is good and doesn't need much sugar.
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I don't see the point of fruit tea. It just smells amazing, and tastes of nothing.
Plus they use flavourings, even in the organic stuff. It's way better for you (and far tastier) to just use a bit of fruit juice in hot water. :M
So fruit tea doesn't taste as good as it smells? I'm sorry to hear that. :-\
the herbal tea we get here is quite good. The fruit tea I have is a blend of dried fruit otherwise it may be that I could make them from juice, but where would I find blueberry juice in the amount needed to make a few cups of tea? I do dry my own fruit which is better for making blends and doesn't go bad like juice would. Today I am having Tulsi tea. It has Holy Basil in it. It is good and doesn't need much sugar.
Is Holy Basil anything like the green leafy basil that goes in spaghetti sauce? :fatchef:
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I don't see the point of fruit tea. It just smells amazing, and tastes of nothing.
Plus they use flavourings, even in the organic stuff. It's way better for you (and far tastier) to just use a bit of fruit juice in hot water. :M
So fruit tea doesn't taste as good as it smells? I'm sorry to hear that. :-\
the herbal tea we get here is quite good. The fruit tea I have is a blend of dried fruit otherwise it may be that I could make them from juice, but where would I find blueberry juice in the amount needed to make a few cups of tea? I do dry my own fruit which is better for making blends and doesn't go bad like juice would. Today I am having Tulsi tea. It has Holy Basil in it. It is good and doesn't need much sugar.
You can get sachets of pure cherry juice from Holland & Barrett I think. But yeh, whatever works for you. :) Which fruits do you dry?
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I don't see the point of fruit tea. It just smells amazing, and tastes of nothing.
Plus they use flavourings, even in the organic stuff. It's way better for you (and far tastier) to just use a bit of fruit juice in hot water. :M
So fruit tea doesn't taste as good as it smells? I'm sorry to hear that. :-\
the herbal tea we get here is quite good. The fruit tea I have is a blend of dried fruit otherwise it may be that I could make them from juice, but where would I find blueberry juice in the amount needed to make a few cups of tea? I do dry my own fruit which is better for making blends and doesn't go bad like juice would. Today I am having Tulsi tea. It has Holy Basil in it. It is good and doesn't need much sugar.
Is Holy Basil anything like the green leafy basil that goes in spaghetti sauce? :fatchef:
different. not sure if they are related. the spice is too pungent for a tea for me. the other kind is also called tulsi; i'ts just right.