Someone tell me how to make tea please

[iadom]

Originally Posted by Halcyon

Nothing beats Volvic mineral water. Lovely !!!

The water from our tap tastes as good if not better than any of that overpriced, overated bottled stuff.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Originally Posted by towny

Plumbed-in water softeners are not cheap! Not sure you're meant to drink the water that comes through them either, I think they are mainly designed to save your pipes from getting scaled up. We have a filter jug in the fridge for filling the kettle which makes a big difference, but it still isn't truly 'soft'.

Water softeners work in different ways.

The original types require you to add salts or other chemicals. In which case the plumbing incoming main should be run with a spur before the softener going to the kitchen sink tap.

Other softeners are more of a plumbed in filter, rather than a softener. Those can be fitted immediately after your stopcock so that water passing through will then go to all taps including your kitchen, although most would in fact just fit it to the pipe serving the kitchen tap, thus it is a permanent filter instead of your Brita type thingy. You must remember to change the filter periodically else you could e drinking impure water, worse than if you did not filter at all.

The most modern way of doing this is a magnet, which clamps around the pipe. Somehow it is supposed to reorientate the ions and particles in the water so they wont cling to things in the same way and cause less scale. As these do not add anything to the water, they can be fitted to a pipe that serves all parts of the house, including drinking water.

A word of warning. In most houses, or flats where there are cold water storage tanks do not consider drinking from taps served by them. Brushing your teeth may be OK, but it might be worth checking the tank if you've not looked at it before. Especially in older homes, where there is no underfelt to tiles, the roofspace gets very dirty. Older tanks did not have lids. Thus all the dirt, creepy crawlies and other such stuff can fall into the tank. I've even heard of dead birds being in there. Imagine drinking that And it won't do your tea making flavour any good either, so don't fill your teasmaid from your bathroom just to save the walk downstairs

Originally Posted by MovedGoalPosts

The most modern way of doing this is a magnet, which clamps around the pipe. Somehow it is supposed to reorientate the ions and particles in the water so they wont cling to things in the same way and cause less scale. As these do not add anything to the water, they can be fitted to a pipe that serves all parts of the house, including drinking water.

We have an electromagnetic 'softener' on our main pipe, purchased from the Innovations catalogue about 4 years ago. It is a useless waste of space. There has been no appreaciable difference to the rate at which everything scales up in our house. It has been installed and switched on permanently since the day it was delivered to our house. I spent the first 12 months convincing myself we would soon see a gradual improvement as our pipes began to de-scale, but TBH eventually we just forgot it was there.

[zoombini]

Originally Posted by Incognitas

Well it's much nicer to make your own.I have a non boil recipe if anyone is interested.

Incog.

I am, I love Liptons Ice tea, esp the Peach one..

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by MovedGoalPosts

A word of warning. In most houses, or flats where there are cold water storage tanks do not consider drinking from taps served by them. Brushing your teeth may be OK, but it might be worth checking the tank if you've not looked at it before. Especially in older homes, where there is no underfelt to tiles, the roofspace gets very dirty. Older tanks did not have lids. Thus all the dirt, creepy crawlies and other such stuff can fall into the tank. I've even heard of dead birds being in there. Imagine drinking that And it won't do your tea making flavour any good either, so don't fill your teasmaid from your bathroom just to save the walk downstairs

On the flip side, if you live in a house with a combi boiler or pressurised hot water system (megaflow or equivilant) then all cold taps in the house are served by main cold water, so safe to drink, and you hot water is instant heat, or in a storage cylinder that is turned over regularly, so unlikly to contain any nasties.

Originally Posted by zoombini

I am, I love Liptons Ice tea, esp the Peach one..

Have you seen the sugar* content though. Worse than a plumbers cuppa

* well it's not really sugar, but high fructose corn syrup which is far worse for you.

[Halcyon]

Yeah I know its quite heavy on the sugary side, but its very nice to drink on a hot dummers day.
In France last summer I found they do a raspberry one too. Interesting flavours.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

On the flip side, if you live in a house with a combi boiler or pressurised hot water system (megaflow or equivilant) then all cold taps in the house are served by main cold water, so safe to drink, and you hot water is instant heat, or in a storage cylinder that is turned over regularly, so unlikly to contain any nasties.

Ahh, might not be quite so good an idea to drink the preheated "hot" water. It may have been subjected to a heating, cooling and reheating cycle, if the water hasn't been used for a little while, ideal for bacteria growth. Also dependent on the temperature the water is heated to, it might encourage rather than discourage bacteria growth. I think it is accepted water temperatures need to be over 60 deg C to prevent most bacteria like Legionella multilying. That's why you often can't stick your hand under the taps in public buildings, but few home users set their boilers that high.

[SMHarman]

I wasn't suggesting to drink it - instant instant coffee anyone. More that any water you may ingest during a shower say is more likely to be safe in such an instance.

It is also recommended that you turn down the temperature of your Domestic Hot Water when you have small children as it reduces the risk that they may scald themselves.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Er back on topic

Originally Posted by Halcyon

I have a plumber downstairs and I am going to have to offer him a drink and he says he drinks tea.
<snip>

So did you make him a cup, and what was the reaction?

[Halcyon]

LOL well yeah I guess I better let you know.
I never thought this topic would get so huge.
Thanks for all the replies.

I did make a cup for him. This is what I did:

1. Boiled kettle.

2. Put 2 cm of milk in the cup.

3. Chose the powder that was the least strong smell. Which I've found out is tea. I put (way too much I've been told by my Mum) into the tea strainer and hovered it on the cup.

4. Lots fell in the cup so I started again and cleaned the cup.

5. Poured in in the hot water over the strainer and then pushed on the tea with a spoon.

6. Added a bit more milk on top.


Conclusion: He actually drank it which is good. Although being a plumber and working in the kitchen, he could have tipped it down the drain. However he did look happy so I must have got something right.

He didnt want another one though and later had some water.

And there you have it.

I actually followed some more instructions today for the plasterer who wanted a coffee. It turned out well. To coffee lovers, I'm sorry to dissapoint but it was instant as the cooker is out of order at the moment.

We are having the whole kitchen re-done. It looks like a bombs gone off.

So success all round.

[SMHarman]

...and 100 posts later we get the feedback LOL

[cookie_365]

Originally Posted by Halcyon

oh my Cookie_365, You certainly have some big views on this tea controversy.
Were you dropped in a kettle as a child and boiled with a tea bag, thus starting your tea expert skills ?

I was once a well rounded, fairly sane individual, but one exposure too many to British hotels' 'tea making facilities' finally pushed me over the edge ....

I don't mind anyone making tea to a slightly different recipe, but if you're going to insist, please don't call it 'tea': 'tea like beverage' is so much more appropriate!

My big moan about milk in tea is that the milk that actually gets put in tea in this country usually hasn't seen the working end of a cow's nipple in about a week ....

[Shaun]

The milk in my tea has never seen a cow in its life (soya) and I like it that way

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by cookie_365

My big moan about milk in tea is that the milk that actually gets put in tea in this country usually hasn't seen the working end of a cow's nipple in about a week ....

You mean you'd prefer milk straight from the udder?

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Xaccers

You mean you'd prefer milk straight from the udder?

Nasty for the cow if the tea gets to close to the udder..