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Has anyone tried this? Kombucha fermented tea. Maybe it's not tea. I don't know. There’s a bunch of wild health claims on the label, but I just drink it for the taste and the pick-me-up. It’s fizzy and sour – I like the ginger version which tastes like a really sour ginger ale.

Journeys: Beyond Tea and Crumpets in Portland OR http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/trave...html?ref=travel

I am looking to buy some good quality loose tea that (ideally!) would be produced in the US. It will be made in a bodum tea pot. Is there good quality tea produced in the US or does the rest of the world the franchise on tea? Where would you recommend getting tea? Thanks!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/foodprogramme.shtml this shop is also one of the better teashops to purchase taiwanese tea

HI All- I would like some input on sweetening cold drinks. I am hosting a lunch and am considering either brown sugar in lumps or a simple syrup on the table to sweeten the iced drinks (primarily iced tea or tea based punches). My question are the following: 1. Can I make the pretty lumps of sugar I see when dining out at home? 2. Should I simply set a small carafe of simple syrup on the table? 3. For those that are diabetic can I make a simple syrup using splenda for table use? Thank you for any info you can offer.

Are tea leaves ever used straight off the bush, without drying or curing? Literally green tea... and i think i remember reading about fresh tea leaves being used in cooking, is this correct or am i imagining it? Thanks

A while back, a co-worker offered to get me a cup of coffee and asked if I wanted milk or sugar. "A little milk," I replied. He brought me a cup that was pale tan in color and had to have been 40 percent half-and-half. To me, it was undrinkable -- lukewarm and unpleasantly mouth-coating; yet another co-worker who got a virtually identical cup proclaimed it "perfect." (I ended up pouring half the coffee out and refilling the cup with straight coffee, at which point it was almost okay.) Since then, I've been paying attention to milk in coffee, and I believe I'm in the minority. Most people who drink milk or cream in their coffee seem to like much more than I do. I also prefer whole milk; although half-and-half is acceptable, it's much easier to overpour. "Reduced fat" milk is okay if I'm desperate, but non-fat is worthless in coffee. (And forget non-dairy "creamer" -- I'd rather not drink coffee than use it.) What kind of milk do others prefer? How much? Steamed or cold?

I first tried asking this question of people in the China forum. No luck. So, does anyone here know anything about how to conduct a three tea set? In Mandarin it is refered to as San Dao Cha.

Hello to all the Coffee Lovers out there, I have a question for you from someone(me) that doesn't know a lot about high quality coffee... What kind of quality do the larger coffee chains have? poor, ok, good, or great quality coffee products... I'm interested in the chain stores like starbucks, coffee bean and tea leaf, peets coffee, etc.... I would love to hear your opinions on who is the best out of those three or other big chains and why... Thank you for your help in advance,

I just received issue #2 of this beautifully prepared magazine- I purchased my copy at www.houdeasianart.com The magazine has articles on yixing teapots, puerh tea, gong fu style tea servic joanne r. aka jpr54_

Coffee and chocolate is, of course, one of the great flavor pairings of all time, and one of my personal favorite treats. Lately I've begun drinking tea occassionally in place of coffee, and this afternoon decided to try a bit of chocolate with it. Neither was a very exotic variety, Earl Greys and Baronie Bittersweet, but they certainly didn't enhance each other. Is this just a peculiarity of mine, a general rule of thumb, or are there some tea-chocolate combinations that work well? SB

I've been a big coffee fan for years, but lately, I've been drinking more tea. Where do you get your tea? Do you have an importer you like? An online store you frequent. I've been buying tea from Rishi at stores in the Milwaukee area (they are located in the area too) and have been very happy. One of my favorites so far is the Earl Green. Very tasty. .... sorry if there is a thread like this already, I did a quick search but didn't see anything....

Has anyone either installed a new thermostat or upgraded one on a Francisfrancis X5? Or, for that matter, know of anyone who has? Mine is going, the boiler is cycling on and off every second in the espresso mode, and taking about three times greater than normal to reach steam temperature. I searched the net this afternoon with little luck specific to this model and learned after calling Illy, that the minimum charge will be $100 just to look at it. And that doesn't include the parts that they won't sell to individuals. I found a posting online that refered to a group of finatic X5ers that live for parts failures so they can modify their machines. Unfortunately, the site gave me no way to contact the person. I posted a similar topic on coffeegeek this afternoon, but have not gotten any replies back yet.

I read this here: I've check Vitamin Cottage (the local chain of health food stores) and searched online. Looks like Matcha is pretty hard to come by -- I was only able to find VitaLife offering it and/or some Japanese brand of tea. Anybody know where to get matcha?

A wonderful thing happened today. Cafe Kubal opened in Eastwood, a neighborhood of Syracuse. Four blocks from our house. They're doing small batches of coffee in a 1904 roaster and serving a nice, basic set of coffee drinks and teas. They also serve pastries that are made by some Austrian guy in Geneva, NY. To get those pastries, they bring coffee beans to a customer in Weedsport and this person, who goes regularly from the Geneva pastry-maker's place to Weedsport, hands over pastries. Because Cafe Kubal is run by it's owners, the cafe is able to cater to local tastes, pay attention to important little details, and still offer coffee that is quite possibly superior to anything else being currently roasted in Syracuse. (Lots of pictures in the slideshow here) My question: We travel for food and coffee. Where are the other truly great cafes in the Northeast... outside of New York City? (Okay, include it if you must.) I'm looking for places from Toronto to Buffalo to Albany to Boston, and maybe up and down the Hudson Valley. Into Pennsylvania or northern New England would be fine, too. Anyone have their take on Muddy Cup? They're expanding rapidly! Lonnie

We are glad to introduce our new products line of artisan blooming tea: Chinese Artisan Tea ( Also called as Blooming Tea, Blossoming Tea, Flowering Tea, Artistic Tea, Display Tea, Art Tea, Crafted Tea, Hand-Crafted Tea, China Special Tea), is made of the highest grade special green tea of fresh spring crops and natural herb flowers. It is kind of newly-innovated special green tea featuring unique appearance, splendid infusion view. We have developed more than 60 kinds of artisan tea products available for choices. Also we are able to produce products based on your selections of herb, green tea, taste and designed-images. If you hope to know more information about artisan blooming tea products, pls kindly contact us by http://www.artisan-tea.com

guang of www.houdeasianart.com has on his website/blog 3 small videos about oolong tea- it is well worth the 12 minutes- joanne r.

I just received issue #1 of this beautiful magazine- I purchased it from www.houdeasianart.com they also have a wonderful selection of teas

I used to use a flannel drip filter (like a flannel tea-strainer), then they went out of fashion and I couldn't buy a new one. Recently my local coffee shop owner assured me that they need to be stored wrung-out, in the fridge. They do??

Hi All! I'm new to this section of eG (usually hang with the P&B crowd). Does anyone know of a machine, (home or commercial) dedicated to solely making tea lattes? I was in Vancouver earlier this month and there's a tea shop in West Vancouver called the Urban Tea Merchant that has such a machine. According to them, the only one being used in the country. Thanks

Theres a Wonderful article in the guardian about the history of tea in China, Britain and around the world.

i don't know why i think this stuff is so good. i pretty much have substituted water with this. and with 0 calories and at 99 cents for a big green bottle, it's hard to stop! anyone else tried it?

After a brief flirtation with coffee in my youth, I have returned to the home of my grandmothers and am now, once again a tea drinker with a minor flirtation with decent coffee. Upon my return I realised that I much preferred China tea to Indian and Ceylon teas. Well, that wasn't a problem really, lazy human that I am, I could buy Twinings China Black in tea bags and be happy. In the summer I drank Lapsang with a little lemon or maybe a nice cup of Earl Grey, and all was well. For a little while. But the sudden influx of flavoured teas and ten varieties of green tea and whatnot invaded the supermarket shelves and suddenly China Black was no more. Oh well. For a little while I drank Russian Caravan, which wasn't quite it, but better than nothing. And then by accident I discovered Twinings Yunnan Tea and I was back in business. For a little while. I was even makiing special trips to the only supermarket I knew which carried the Yunnan. But then the Yunnan went the way of China Black and even Russian Caravan is losing ground to three hundred varieties of tea flavoured with white chocolate and toenails or used bandaids and rosewater, or whatever. So the question is now, what am I going to drink? I'm obviously going to have to break out my teapot and visit speciality stores, but I'm a little lost by the varieties of loose China tea available. I've visited Grey and Seddon online, and they look promising (I'm in Australia), but I don't know what to buy. I do drink White Tea and Chai tea, Yerba Mate sometimes and some herbal teas, but what I really want is a decent black tea as my every day tea, so that I can come home, put on the kettle and make myself a nice cup of tea. Any suggestions would be very welcome.

I received my first order of spring oolong from www.houdeasianart.com. I received 2006 Spring Shan-Lin-Shi "Yan Wen" oolong and 2006 Spring Shan-Lin-Shi "Long Feng Shia" oolong both teas are hand harvested I can hardly wait to try them- the next spring teas I will purchase from www.shanshuiteas.com The Korean teas are always very special Joanne R. aka jpr54_

At a Chinese restaurant last night I had the most interesting tea. I'm used to the standard "Chinese restaurant tea" that they set out on your table in kettles, but as soon as I poured this stuff I knew it was different. The color was a very dark brown - so dark that you almost couldn't see the bottom of the (small) cup. The taste was kind of malty, almost like beer, but tea. I asked the waiter if he knew what kind of tea it was, but he had no idea. Anyone know what this is? I'd love to try it again.