Green tea...

[AVGWarhawk]

is it as good for you as claimed? :hmmm:

[Skybird]

Let'S say its' claimed positive effects are "discussed". Several meta-studies over the past ten years indicate that the miracles that get promised by some, are hopelessly exagerated, some are even unconfirmed alltogether, for example certain effects helping to counter cancer.

My advise would be to drink it if you like it, and then to truly enjoy it, taking the time, and not to hurry. The overall experience then indeed may be of benefit for you. ;)

[Sea Demon]

is it as good for you as claimed? :hmmm:

Sources say it's a good source of antioxidants.

[Ducimus]

is it as good for you as claimed? :hmmm:

If you mean that crap you can buy at some of the hipster coffee shops like starbucks, - i didn't like the taste of it. I think one could do just as well by mowing their lawn, and mixing the clippings in a cup of water.

[nikimcbee]

If you mean that crap you can buy at some of the hipster coffee shops like starbucks, - i didn't like the taste of it. I think one could do just as well by mowing their lawn, and mixing the clippings in a cup of water.

:haha: This./\ The first time I tried plain green tea, I about yacked. I thought it tasted like hay\ dried grass clippings.

[AVGWarhawk]

Sources say it's a good source of antioxidants.

I have read the same. The jury is still out.

If you mean that crap you can buy at some of the hipster coffee shops like starbucks, - i didn't like the taste of it. I think one could do just as well by mowing their lawn, and mixing the clippings in a cup of water.

It is green! I have some with berry flavor. It's not bad tasting. I would say the berry flavor does make it better. Question is, are the grass clippings a good antioxidant? :hmmm:

This./\ The first time I tried plain green tea, I about yacked. I thought it tasted like hay\ dried grass clippings.

I would bet the plain taste like hay/grass clippings. Added flavor make it better. At least with this box I have. Certainly a acquired taste. :yep:

[AVGWarhawk]

Let'S say its' claimed positive effects are "discussed". Several meta-studies over the past ten years indicate that the miracles that get promised by some, are hopelessly exagerated, some are even unconfirmed alltogether, for example certain effects helping to counter cancer.

My advise would be to drink it if you like it, and then to truly enjoy it, taking the time, and not to hurry. The overall experience then indeed may be of benefit for you.

The overall experience of drinking a good scotch serves me better! :DL

[tater]

Good green tea is quite good. I love it, though I prefer good, black coffee most of the time.

Note that if it is made with a bag, it ain't good tea (regardless of how it is dried).

[CCIP]

I'm drinking some right now :|\\

Not for health reasons or anything though, I just like it. Like any good tea, to really get it right, don't go for it at starbucks or get it in teabags at a supermarket, get the good stuff as leaves from a specialty store. Delicious! :yep:

[vienna]

I often drink green tea; very much so when I'm working on a long project and don't need the "after-crash-and-burn" from a long period of drinking coffee. It is quite true about the teabag version being the less preferred form of the tea; go to a good Asian store and buy the better quality tea. Oh, and yes, it is an acquired taste, but, then, so was beer for most of us...

[AVGWarhawk]

Good green tea is quite good. I love it, though I prefer good, black coffee most of the time.

Note that if it is made with a bag, it ain't good tea (regardless of how it is dried).

I like coffee as my first choice as well but I have a sore throat. The hot tea helps with that. My daughter, out of curiosity, want to try some tea. She did not like her selection of green tea flavored with berry. The box was in the cabinet so I figured I would use it up. We usually have the black tea around but not the green tea.

Like any good tea, to really get it right, don't go for it at starbucks or get it in teabags at a supermarket, get the good stuff as leaves from a specialty store. Delicious!

I don't darken Starbucks doorway. The coffee is overpriced like crazy. However, the Sumatra blend from Starbucks for my Keureg is awesome. If I find some on sale I will get that blend. I agree, the supermarket brand is certainly not as good as what you would find in a specialty store. It is the difference between already ground coffee and grinding your coffee beans just before the pot is made. Much different taste between the two.

[Ducimus]

http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/5483/5483,1271602374,1/stock-photo-green-grass-in-big-cup-on-white-background-51192757.jpg http://www.soymilkquick.com/assets/images/articles/wheatGrass/wheatGrassCup.jpg
I got your green tea, right here. Bon appetit, ya damn hipsters. :O:

[AVGWarhawk]

Oh Hell, I have not seen tea that green!! I knew there was a reason I liked coffee better.

Tea is better for sore throat though...IMO. When scotch is not available that is. :DL

[Ducimus]

I knew there was a reason I liked coffee better.


Now your speaking my language! So says the guy with the longstanding reference to coffee as a sig pic. :har:

[CCIP]

I quit coffee after realizing your banner was accurate :D

Used to be a complete coffee addict for about 6 years, and then after I accidentally stopped drinking it for a few weeks I realized that I felt a hell of a lot better, calmer and more productive. Haven't gone back to it since, in fact haven't even had a cup of the stuff in 10 months now. The only downside is that I now sleep for like 10-12 hours a day, but then sleep is still better than doing stupid things while being all twitchy and agitated :O:

[nikimcbee]

I quit coffee after realizing your banner was accurate :D

Used to be a complete coffee addict for about 6 years, and then after I accidentally stopped drinking it for a few weeks I realized that I felt a hell of a lot better, calmer and more productive. Haven't gone back to it since, in fact haven't even had a cup of the stuff in 10 months now. The only downside is that I now sleep for like 10-12 hours a day, but then sleep is still better than doing stupid things while being all twitchy and agitated :O:

Now if I remember you age and do the math, I don't think its because you quit coffee, it's because youre no longer a teenager.:haha:

[AVGWarhawk]

I limit myself to one cup a day concerning coffee. Just the morning wake up routine. I do not drink soda with caffeine. In fact, I do not drink soda at all. Water/milk/coffee (beer/scotch once twice a month).

[CCIP]

Now if I remember you age and do the math, I don't think its because you quit coffee, it's because youre no longer a teenager.:haha:

I dunno, does 27 (the age I quit coffee) count as the time people stop being teenagers these days? Or am I still not there? :O:

I actually didn't really start drinking coffee until the senior year of university, when I couldn't survive without my morning 'fix' - but over the next few years it accellerated, particularly when my morning fix was something like 600ml of very strong black coffee, and I'd do that more than once a day. Oddly, I found quitting it really easy for some reason, just forgot to make my 'fix' one day and never touched it since - just went cold turkey without even meaning to. So I suppose to some extent, it was some kind of physiological change in me that helped that. People change.

[vienna]

I got your green tea, right here. Bon appetit, ya damn hipsters.


I'm hardly a hipster; started drinking green tea in the late 70s when my then girlfriend was studying Japanese language and culture at UCLA. I find it goes better with a lot of the Asian foods than beer or sake...

Besides, a few thousand years of Asian field testing can't be wrong... :DL

[AVGWarhawk]

Besides, a few thousand years of Asian field testing can't be wrong...

I say the same thing about rice. :hmmm: Maybe they are on to something.

[vienna]

Asians drink alcohol like fish, smoke like chimneys yet have some of the lowest cancer rates in the world; maybe you're right: they might be on to something... :hmmm:

[TarJak]

http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/5483/5483,1271602374,1/stock-photo-green-grass-in-big-cup-on-white-background-51192757.jpg http://www.soymilkquick.com/assets/images/articles/wheatGrass/wheatGrassCup.jpg
I got your green tea, right here. Bon appetit, ya damn hipsters. :O:
Looks more like wheatgrass juice rather than green tea.

Green tea looks more like this:
http://www.ambatch.com/uploaded_images/tea-728653.jpg http://www.prlog.org/10207321-chinese-green-teas.jpg

[AVGWarhawk]

Yes, the green tea I'm drinking looks like the small cup above. Kind of like the start of algae growing. :hmmm:

[mookiemookie]

I drink 2 or 3 cups a day. And they're right...the sawdust looking crap is garbage. Get a good tea egg or spoon and fill it with the good stuff.

[Ducimus]

I quit coffee after realizing your banner was accurate :D

Used to be a complete coffee addict for about 6 years, and then after I accidentally stopped drinking it for a few weeks I realized that I felt a hell of a lot better, calmer and more productive. Haven't gone back to it since, in fact haven't even had a cup of the stuff in 10 months now. The only downside is that I now sleep for like 10-12 hours a day, but then sleep is still better than doing stupid things while being all twitchy and agitated :O:

Ill have you know that Coffee (aside from Captain Morgan spiced rum), is one of the biggest reasons that supermod for SH4, that i *think* you might be playing on occasion, exists!

[Ducimus]

Looks more like wheatgrass juice rather than green tea.

Green tea looks more like this:
]


Well, i was making a joke about green tea. Because to me, it tastes like lawn clippings in a cup of water. Hence my pics depicting lawn grass in a cup. That's about what i think it tastes like. BLECH!

[CCIP]

Ain't knocking coffee (nor Captain Morgan, mmm), it got me through two college diplomas :D And "on occasion" is a bit of an understatement for the last few weeks of my SH4 playing.

Still not going back to it though, it's just tea for me now.

There's also different kinds of green tea. I'm not a fan of some of the sharper, 'browner' Chinese/Vietnamese varieties. But I do like the 'greener' and milder stuff, like various Japanese Sencha types.

[Madox58]

Harvesting Green Tea in Asia.

http://s11.lucyphotos.com/images/orig/i/r/irvbs17okv11ko1s.jpg

[Skybird]

It is green! I have some with berry flavor. It's not bad tasting. I would say the berry flavor does make it better. Question is, are the grass clippings a good antioxidant? :hmmm:

Note that antioxidants have chnaged their percpetion by the scientific community, too. They are no longer seen as the miracle catchers of free radicals, in fact it seems that they even can do damage.

What they now focus on to say is that you need a good balance between both antioxidants and free radicals, else, with not enough free radicals, the imune system looses in striking power.

Do not buy tead bags. That is guarantee for bad green tee. Do not - never any tea! - brew it with hot boiling water that still produces bubbles - let it cool down a bit, 1-2 minutes. That boiling water tip is BS advice from teabag producers not knowing their stuff. Use loose tea, and ask for as good one - the differences in different green teas are very very huge. Brew it very short only. 2 Minutes, not more. It shall not taste strong, and it shall not get bitter, which it easily does.

Have to say that I like Japanese Green Tea very much. There are a couple of Chinese teas as well that by taste are somewhat familiar, White Tea/Pai Mu Tan for example.

Never use these with sugar or added artifical aromes. Its just water and tea - no sugar, no milk, no nothing. If you like it sweet, get African Roibosch "tea" (its no real tea plant, so no coffeine), with sugar and milk. I kill for it, occasionally! :D

Coffee, okay everybody knows it, but I prefer a strong espresso any time, even when it is a lie: it taste so much better and much stronger but has at least 1/3 less of coffeine, due to the different brewing method. It's also milder and more friendly in effect.

[CCIP]

Do not - never any tea! - brew it with hot boiling water that still produces bubbles - let it cool down a bit, 1-2 minutes. That boiling water tip is BS advice from teabag producers not knowing their stuff. Use loose tea, and ask for as good one - the differences in different green teas are very very huge. Brew it very short only. 2 Minutes, not more. It shall not taste strong, and it shall not get bitter, which it easily does.

Very good advice also! This is another reason that green tea has a bad name - it's simply brewed the wrong way by a lot of people. You can't do it with water that's still boiling, and you can't brew en masse and hold it for a long time. Knowing those two things alone makes for better green tea. Naturally, at a lot of restaurants, they don't do that due to the demands of mass service, and you end up with mediocre tea. Or if it comes in bags - bad tea that's often full of filler (think wood chips or seed skins from rice).

My own conversion to tea happened 3-4 years ago when I was educated on how to buy, brew and serve it right. Green tea, red/brown tea, white tea, flower/fruit teas - they are all awesome in their own ways, but require the right approach. That doesn't mean you need to learn the tea ceremony to appreciate them, but brewing them right will make a lot of difference.

[Skybird]

That doesn't mean you need to learn the tea ceremony to appreciate them, but brewing them right will make a lot of difference.
I had the privilege to have repeatedly gotten served green tea in the ceremonial way by my trainer and mentor, who was Japanese. For that, the powder form of the tea is used, completly pulverised, and then a bamboo brush used to shake it in the water.

It tastes completely different. And if I am honest: not necessarily better.

Also one thing you should know: the real premium quality of the yearly tea harvest never leaves the country, but is exclusively for the national market. If you have the chance to order it via a friend you have in Japan, or stay there yourself, go for these teas, if you can. What they bring to the European and American market, is ALWAYS just second choice, no matter what they tell you in the tea shop.

Maybe you cannot get access to these. But at least you can stay away from teabags and tea with added aromes.

[CCIP]

Also one thing you should know: the real premium quality of the yearly tea harvest never leaves the country, but is exclusively for the national market. If you have the chance to order it via a friend you have in Japan, or stay there yourself, go for these teas, if you can.

My brother has recently moved to Japan, possibly permanently. I'll be sure to ask him to send me some once he settles in a little bit :)

That applies to a LOT of things about Japan by the way. Many Japanese foods, from sushi to ramen, really do need to be experienced in Japan to be properly appreciated. Both because of what they save for the market, and because of the differences between the 'dumbed down' exported flavours/preparation methods and original domestic cuisine.

You can still get a lot of good tea of all sorts anywhere, though, just maybe not quite as top-notch.

[Sailor Steve]

Note that if it is made with a bag, it ain't good tea (regardless of how it is dried).
So I guess instant is right out then? :O:

[tater]

Heheh.

It's like coffee. I buy small amounts of beans at a time, usually the day, or at most the day after they are roasted. I consume them within 2-3 days. They are ground instantly before brewing (I have a full-auto espresso machine), and I do not even load the bean hopper, I keep it in sealed baggies, and dump just enough for the coffee I will be making (2-4 cups worth).

Bagged tea is like preground coffee. If you get high-end bags, it's "acceptable," but just barely. Like coffee, it's probably fine if you put crap IN your tea or coffee (milk, sugar, etc). In that case, it's sort of a waste to bother with better tea as you are ruining it, anyway (if you load coffee with cream and sugar, you might as well make folgers, IMO).

I like some "adulterated" teas, however. I like genmai cha (has some toasted rice in it). I like masala chai as well sometimes---but it's not made with "champagne" tea, it's cheap black tea boiled with milk, sugar, and spices al together. Gotta love places like starbucks calling masala chai "chai tea." Chai means "tea." Maybe they should sell café coffee?

[Stealhead]

I have to agree with Ducimus on green tea being big with the hipsters.
I do sometimes drink it though not from Starbucks I have never set foot inside a Starbucks in my life and do not plan to.I got introduced to green tea by this Japanese engineer that was an adviser for Mitsubishi ship building that was helping set up some machinery at my uncles machine shop so they could make parts for Mitsubishi.I thought it was pretty good and I also have to use much less sugar for green tea than I do for other types of tea so I would say that is a good thing.That engineer also got me hooked on Japanese candy.

[tater]

Sugar?

Dunno about hipsters, I don't think I rate as very hip (nor have I ever).

[AVGWarhawk]

I'm just drinking the collared greens in hopes of getting well faster. Day 3, making headway into the realm of wellness. Green tea a contributor? Jury is out. But, it helps sooth the sore throat. So, I can say hot water, flavored or not, helps. :hmmm: Now, what of these free radicals? They are ruining the country. No...wait... :O:

[Nippelspanner]

Just one advise when it comes to tea... dont buy the 99c stuff, its practically poison or just flavour. Spend some more, buy the good stuff and enjoy good tea.

It won`t make you fly, but it is surely one of the most healthy things to drink...

[Skybird]

One last advice that really can make a very huge difference for tea, depending on the water quality you have: use a water-filter. In Germany, water quality varies regarding the ammount of lime (you call it that in English? Kalk?). But you do not want "hard" water with lots of lime in it, you want "soft" water without lime. It influences tea severely, especially tea that is not really strong in taste but depends on more subtle aromes.

Also, I was told that compared to over here the water in other countries like America gets added plenty of chlorine, more than we use here. Obviously this has a strong effect on water taste. In the 80s my father'S orchestra had a tour in the US, and he said that on various stays he and colleagues refused to drink water from the pipes as served for free in restaurants - a habit not present in Germany, over here you always and exclusively get bottled, sparkling water - for it smelled and tasted like water in a swimming bassin, very intense in chlorine, and for their European-German tongues it was simply inedible. Different places, different habits.

Anyway, use a water filter, it helps against both lime and chlorine. It also prevents your water cooker from getting covered with lime. The absence of the taste from chlorine, and the "softer" water make a very huge difference. I have relatively "hard" water in my household, so I compared it directly. I don'T brew tea without filtered water anymore.

Coffee is too robust and too intense in heavy tastes as if it is so obvious there.

[Spike88]

Do not buy tead bags. That is guarantee for bad green tee. Do not - never any tea! - brew it with hot boiling water that still produces bubbles - let it cool down a bit, 1-2 minutes. That boiling water tip is BS advice from teabag producers not knowing their stuff. Use loose tea, and ask for as good one - the differences in different green teas are very very huge. Brew it very short only. 2 Minutes, not more. It shall not taste strong, and it shall not get bitter, which it easily does.

I believe the suggestion to boil the tea comes from wanting to kill any bacteria on the tea.

I know sun tea can be poisonous if left for too long as the water never gets hot enough to kill the bacteria in the water and on the tea.

For those who are not familiar with sun tea, it's the process of putting tea leaves/bags in a glass container with the water, and leaving it outside during the hot parts of the day to "brew" the tea. It brews the tea without using any energy(well energy that you get billed for, as sun light is free(for now)). The only draw back is that the tea needs to be refrigerated after two hours, and thrown away at the end of the day.




Have to say that I like Japanese Green Tea very much. There are a couple of Chinese teas as well that by taste are somewhat familiar, White Tea/Pai Mu Tan for example.



I also enjoy Japanese green tea, and I've been drinking it before it was "cool" (That's a jab at hipsters who do things "Before they were cool")

While it may not be the most traditional way I do enjoy getting my cup of Hot Green Tea with my meal at my local Hibachi Steak House(Aptly named Samurai). I prefer drinking it without sugar.

As for the whole coffee or tea thing, I'll always prefer tea of any kind(with or without sugar).

[AVGWarhawk]

Yes, it is 'hard' water and 'lime' as you stated. Many here use the bottled/filtered spring water. There is not only a concentrate of chlorine but fluoride as well. Water quality/taste can be prevalent and not always pleasant. However, I don't look at a gift horse in the mouth. The clean water on tap is something that many in the world do not enjoy on a regular basis if at all.

[Skybird]

Yes, it is 'hard' water and 'lime' as you stated. Many here use the bottled/filtered spring water. There is not only a concentrate of chlorine but fluoride as well. Water quality/taste can be prevalent and not always pleasant. However, I don't look at a gift horse in the mouth. The clean water on tap is something that many in the world do not enjoy on a regular basis if at all.
Yes, sure, and as I said: I think for a more robust drink like coffee or espresso it makes little difference (at least my tongue cannot tell it). But tea like this is subtle, and if you can choose between waters, make use of that option, and use the better one.

[Skybird]

Got curious and googled a bit about Green Tea, and found this (http://www.japansupport.de/contents/verschieden/gruenertee.html). Beware, it is for German speakers only! Very interesting, did not know most of that stuff. I knew the difference between Sencha and Gyokuro, but the rest I did not know.

The author, a Japanese, says that using sugar or milk or added aromes in Green Tea for Japanese is what for a lover of precious, good wine would be if somebody mixes expensive wine with cola or rum.

If you have the choice, get the Gyokuro. It is slightly milder, slightly "sweeter", and not as "bitter" as Sencha. But the brewing water needs to be relatively "cold". 60°C says the article above. Gyokuro is slightly more expensive, and could be considered as the more precious, "better" tea.

[AVGWarhawk]

I did not read the entire article but we can say with certainty tea is taken very seriously in these two cultures.

[Stealhead]

Sugar?

Dunno about hipsters, I don't think I rate as very hip (nor have I ever).

Yep I put sugar in tea because that is what I like to do I have a sweet tooth I suppose although I have had green tea without it as well and I like the taste "clean" where as with other
teas I don't.I also do not drink coffee so that has an effect of my palate as well.I tried it once not long after joining the military because almost everyone in the military seems to drink coffee
but I never liked the taste.

I think that hipsters are the ones that think things need to be "hip" the green tea I assume you where referring to.I heard some friend of mine say that hipsters like Pabts Blue Ribbon because it is a "working class beer" what ever that means which makes no sense because if you walk into bar frequented by say mill workers they will more likely be drinking Budweiser or Jack Daniels which shows that hipsters are just getting fooled by companies that have decided to target hipsters but I suppose that is hip as well.

[Sailor Steve]

I am very very poor, and can only afford to by good tea once in a great while. When I do I prefer Davison & Newman from London, imported to the United States by the Mark T. Wendell company as Boston Harbor Tea.

Mostly I buy the really cheap stuff at the local store, and I like it fine.

[vienna]

I just got to thinking: wasn't it tea that was responsible for some of the greatest music ever composed? I refer of course to the Pre-Fab Four, the legend that will last a lunch-time, the incomprable Rutles --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijFDkpNma-k

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/72020/The+Rutles.jpg

[Sailor Steve]

Lulz. Actually critics were calling the Monkees the 'Prefab Four' years before Idle and friends appropriated it.

[vienna]

Lulz. Actually critics were calling the Monkees the 'Prefab Four' years before Idle and friends appropriated it.

That was one of the kinder things critics used to call the Monkees, IIRC... :D

[Sailor Steve]

:rotfl2: Yeah, well...

[Dowly]

Been meanning to try tea, liked it as a kid, then turned to coffee...
Then again.. coffee's awesome.. :88)

[CCIP]

Aaaaand guess what I'm drinking right now :DL

Nope, this green tea is definitely good stuff. I can't say I feel any healthier for it, but if you want to sit back and enjoy something slowly, tea is still the best... or 2nd best next to a really good ale, anyway :D

[AVGWarhawk]

Reading Reader's Digest tonight and I quote, Research from London suggests that drinking black tea may help you recover from nerve racking events more quickly.

Maybe this is how Londoners handled the daily attacks by the Luftwaffen.

[Sailor Steve]

Been meanning to try tea, liked it as a kid, then turned to coffee...
Then again.. coffee's awesome.. :88)
Never liked coffee. Love the smell, can't stand the taste. My mom used to plug her coffee pot into a timer. Instead of the jangling of an alarm clock we were awakened by the smell of coffee brewing.

I've never figured out why I don't like the taste. Tea for me every time! :rock: