[Royston]

When I was travelling, the majority of tea I drank was served with no milk...so when I got back I tried drinking tea (in the UK) without milk, popular tea e.g PG tips.

Now I guess you have to dilute regular tea due to it's strength, because the few times I tried this, I wanted to throw up...in fact I did once. So what's the difference in tea that needs to be diluted with milk, with weaker teas. What constitutes the strength of tea...obviously it's not just more caffeine, otherwise I'd chunder if I drank a red bull. Any ideas ?

[YT2095]

Tannin content.

[Royston]

Cheers ! I'm going to look up on Tannin content, IIRC this was mentioned on a wine thread I started too.

[aj47]

In Russia and some Middle eastern countries they drink regular tea without milk but they drink using a Samovar. Simply put it's a big urn with concentrated tea which you add to your cup and dilute with boiling water to your taste. My brother recently brought one back from Russia and use it quite alot now, there great.

[Royston]

Awesome, I guess you could probably buy them over here somewhere...funnily enough you'd think the UK would be 'the' tea drinking nation, but Iraq is number one, infact Ireland drink more tea than us lot. Just thought I'd throw in some random tea facts.

[GutZ]

People drink tea with milk? eew.

[aj47]

Snail said:

Awesome, I guess you could probably buy them over here somewhere...funnily enough you'd think the UK would be 'the' tea drinking nation, but Iraq is number one, infact Ireland drink more tea than us lot. Just thought I'd throw in some random tea facts.

Yea I've heard that too, its hard to believe when you work somewhere like I do. I think the only time i've ever been susceptible to peer pressure is at my work where I end up drinking upwards of five cups a day just so the tea lady won't get offended.

Saying that I've been to quite a few countries where people seem to drink more tea than the English. I remember in Russia I once asked someone for a drink of water to which she replied 'water? what do you get out of water, have tea we're not peasants here'. I spent quite a while convinving her that I genuinely wanted water and wasn't just being polite.

[Royston]

GutZ said:

People drink tea with milk? eew.

Have you tried it...my friends ex who was from Canada, used to rave about Orange Pekoe, which is a black tea. We tried it and realized it was the same as the popular teas you get in Britain, obviously served with milk.

I prefer my tea with milk and no sugar :) but I hasten to add that I have never used the nauseating phrase 'I'm sweet enough as it is.'

[insane_alien]

i drink my tea without milk anyway. just a teabag and boiling water is all i need.

[Royston]

insane_alien said:

i drink my tea without milk anyway. just a teabag and boiling water is all i need.

So are you like, tannin tolerant, or am I just a wuss ?

[insane_alien]

could be either or both, i drink a lot of red wine too and that has a lot of tannin as well.

[Royston]

insane_alien said:

could be either or both, i drink a lot of red wine too and that has a lot of tannin as well.

LOL, same here (red wine drinker) in fact I love the stuff, so I'm wondering if it was in fact tannin that made me feel nauseas. I might give the no milk option another go, and plot a graph...tea dilution Y, nausea X, then I can determine my wuss factor.

[1veedo]

Milk counters the positive health benefits of tea.

[Sayonara³]

1veedo said:

Milk counters the positive health benefits of tea.

I have heard fat gossipy office women who read far too many glossy magazines making that claim, but not seen anything peer reviewed.

Got a source? :confused:

[ecoli]

no milk, but I tend to stick with herbal teas anyway, so they aren't as strong.

[bascule]

Bizzare. The majority of teas I drink are all Asian in origin (ocha and chai). I've never had a problem with them being too strong.

In fact, it wasn't until I went to Japan that I realized that all the green tea I've ever had served here was unusually weak. On the way to Japan I was served green tea on a Japan Airlines flight, and was surprised by how strong it was and how much better it tasted. I had similar experiences with green tea served to me throughout Japan, to the point that when I ordered it after getting back to the US it was disgustingly weak.

[1veedo]

There are a lot of news stories that talk about this one study. The basic thing is that casein blocks the catechins in tea. All or most health benefits from tea come from catechins and specifically egcg.

http://news.bbc.co.u...lth/6241139.stm
http://today.reuters...C1-ArticlePage1

Btw we're talking about green/white tea here (maybe black tea as well? They all come from the same leaf...).

[SkepticLance]

How you drink tea and coffee is a matter of choice, and with a wee bit of self-discipline, you train your tastebuds to like it that way.

I was raised to drink tea and coffee with two spoons of sugar. Decided that was unhealthy and decided to train myself to do without the sugar. For a month it tasted absolutely dreadful, then it tasted good again. I did not realise how much I had changed my testebuds till someone gave me a cup of tea with two spoons of sugar. I was nauseated, and couldn't finish it.

[Bluenoise]

Okay here's the speel on tea.

There is only one Tea plant. No depened on how the leaves are harvested you get different types of tea.
The tea starts off with high levels of citins, however phenol oxidase that is present in the tea converts these to other compounds, such as caffiene
So to make black teas the leaves are left to age for a while. The creates lots of caffience and flavor.
To make green teas the leaves are friend or steam shortly after picking to deactivate phenol oxidase and prevent this process from happening.
There is even white teas, which is the young buds of the plants that are fried right after picking. And it has a very light taste.

All teas that don't fall into this catagorie are herbal teas and are calle tisanes.

Personally I think any teas with milk, is absolutley disgusinting. I don't understand how someone can put milk or cream into tea. Coffee I understant, but tea... Ewww... I only drink my tea straight or with some lemon.

[insane_alien]

wow, i thought there were many types of tea plants for green tea and black tea. oh well, guess you learn something new everyday.