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The Cultured Cup is providing 10 mg samples for another Tea Tasting Discussion. This time a tea blend they have developed for iced tea. Their Yin Yang blend incudes Japanese green tea, Chinese black tea, orange, pineapple, safflower & strawberries. The Cultured Cup has provided four samples of 10 grams each, and I will mail three of them to the eG Society members participating in this tasting. While the tasting is open to all members who have posted at least ten substantive posts in the Coffee and Tea forum, preference will be given until midnight (EDST) Friday, August 14th to those who have not yet participated in any of the last two tastings. As always, everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate in the discussion. So, please PM me now for details if you would like to receive one of the the free samples and participate in the tasting and discussion. As I have mentioned in other topics, I have known Kyle Stewart, co-owner of The Cultured Cup, for some time now, having bought tea from his shop for many years, at least 10 years I believe it is. And for the past three years or so Kyle has been instrumental to my tea education through the T-Bar Club at The Cultured Cup. Kyle attended the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas recently and completed his three years of training with the Speciality Tea Institute to become the first certified tea specialist in Texas. I have had many pleasant times with Kyle and his staff, trading teas and sharing new tea discoveries. More than just a tea merchant I happen to buy tea from, Kyle is a culinary friend as well as a tea friend - the wonderful tea pairings at Sharon Hage's York Street restaurant and a shared interest in Asian food.

Allright, so I'm engaged in a couple of topics where teas are being tasted...click and click. In a fantastic gesture of both his time and expense, Richard Kilgore, one of our volunteer managers, has been acquiring and sending out samples of various high-end teas to members who respond (like I did) with the promise that they'll taste the teas and report back. The way these fancy teas are brewed requires a fair amount of work as well as a fair amount of equipment. Take a look at Richard's topic Show Us Your Teaware, and you'll see what I mean. No doubt tea can be brewed on a shoestring, as can coffee, and you'll still have a mighty fine cup. After all, tea got Bogey and Hepburn down the river, after she poured the Gordon's overboard. As far as my coffee ware goes, trust me, I'm obsessive - as can be seen in this topic started by Mr. Kinsey. Teaware - not so much. I have 2 of those little cute pots and they each hold about a cup of water when full - or, in tea terms, 250ml. To brew a great cup of coffee, I can put water on to boil, get my whole coffee rig set up, weigh out and grind my beans, and have a great 6 -8 oz. cuppa coffee in under 5 minutes 99.9% of the time. If I've preheated Silvia, I can have a great espresso 90% of the time in a minute. Of course, in both cases, excellent fresh coffee is of the utmost importance. But tea? What a pain. Constantly reheating the water (or heating fresh water even), taking it's temperature, timing things, swirling stuff - and all for like a 2 oz. sip of tea? That a lot of times doesn't even come out great. Additionally, it's about 1,000,000 degrees here the last couple of days (so I may be a little cranky) and who wants to spend the afternoon brewing shots of hot tea? I know, I know, people in hot countries drink tea because it cools them off. All over the world, they're drinking hot tea to cool off. Me, I just want air conditioning and an iced coffee. Shaken, frothy and so refreshing. Or a great iced tea. Am I the only one?

Bill Waddington at Tea Source has contributed an Okayati Estate Darjeeling 1st Flush for this Tea Tasting discussion. He provided 10 gram samples for me and three more eG Society members. Each sample is enough to make about four cups of first infusion tea. The three free samples are available to members who 1) will do at least two brewing sessions from the sample, 2) will report on their experience and participate in the discussion, and 3) who have previously posted at least ten (10) substantive posts (questions, answers, comments that add to discussions) in the Coffee and Tea forum. Preference will be given until midnight (EDST) Tuesday August 11, 2009 to those who have not participated in the last two tastings. As always, everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate in the discussion, whether or not you receive a sample. So, please PM me now if you would like to receive one of the the free samples and participate in the tasting and discussion.

In another topic, v. gautam posted an aside reagarding stevia. Anyone else have this experience?

eG Society member Greg Glancy at Norbutea.com is contributing 10 gram samples of a new Taiwan Alishan High Mountain Oolong from the recent spring harvest 2009. Greg has provided four samples of 10 grams each, and I will mail three of them to the eG Society members participating in this tasting and discussion. While the tasting is open to all members who have posted at least ten substantive posts in the Coffee and Tea forum, preference will be given until midnight (EDST) Friday, July 31st to those who have not participated in the last two tastings. Preference will also be given to those who will brew this tea gong fu (with skill) style in a gaiwan. ("Substantive posts" simply means "contributed something to the discussions".) As always, everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate in the discussion. So, please PM me now for details if you would like to receive one of the the free samples and participate in the tasting and discussion. Here's more information on this special Oolong tea from the Norbutea.com website. I have known Greg for several years. A presentation he gave on a trip through the tea markets and farms of China fed my growing interest in learning more about fine teas. Since then Greg has become a tea friend and we drink tea together and trade teas and tea stories from time to time.

Are there any decent quality loose (or a good quality bagged) tea with added caffeine? I'm a fan of (should I admit this here? I'm new to this section of eGullet...) Celestial Seasons Fast Lane and Morning Thunder black teas. I like tea better than coffee, and I like the more subtle energy boost. I like the Fast Lane, but I'd like something better quality, something I can get loose, or just other options in general. Are there any good ones? What would you recommend?

This Tea Tasting Discussion features an Indian black tea, a Nilgiri, Glendale Estate, Handmade. Bill Waddington at teasource.com is providing free 10 gram samples for me and three more eG Society members. Each sample is enough to make about four cups of first infusion tea. This is an impressive tea I first ordered last year from Tea Source. I have since ordered more, unusual for me since I typically prefer to explore many teas, an ounce at a time. Here is some background information from the Teasource site: The three free samples are available to members who 1) will do at least two brewing sessions from the sample, 2) will report on their experience and participate in the discussion, and 3) who have previously posted at least ten (10) substantive posts (questions, answers, comments that add to discussions) in the Coffee and Tea forum. Preference will be given until midnight (EDST) Thursday July 16, 2009 to those who have not participated in the last two tastings. As always, everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate in the discussion, whether or not you receive a sample. So, please PM me now if you would like to receive one of the the free samples and participate in the tasting and discussion.

I had a recent impromptu trip to San Francisco for the weekend and found myself eating breakfast in a rather nice cafe. Great pastries, and a selection of the most frou frou fruity teas I have ever seen. The closest to a tea I would want for breakfast was the earl grey. They made it to my surprise from water from the steamer on the espresso machine.... what a brilliant idea! the water was hot enough! Much more than when it is made with water from the coffee machine which is just too cold. I found myself really enjoying it. IT was a great earl Grey, with the black tea strong enough to shine through the bergamot. I came home and got some earl grey leaves.... bleagh. perfumey and no taste of tea. Any one got some good recommendations for a robust earl grey? And i posted it here because that is what i am drinking this morning. weak earl grey. Help me please

eG Society member Kyle Stewart at The Cultured Cup is contributing three Japanese green teas for tastings here in the Coffee & Tea forum. This, the second one, is a Houjicha Select. Kyle has provided four samples of 10 grams each, and I will mail three of them to the eG Society members participating in this tasting. While the tasting is open to all members who have posted at least ten substantive posts in the Coffee and Tea forum, preference will be given until midnight (EDST) Wednesday, June 24th to those who have not yet participated in any of the last three tastings. As always, everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate in the discussion. So, please PM me now for details if you would like to receive one of the the free samples and participate in the tasting and discussion. Here is a little information on Houjicha from The Cultured Cup: As I have mentioned in other topics, I have known Kyle Stewart for some time now, having bought tea from his shop for many years, at least 10 years I believe it is. And for the past three years or so Kyle has been instrumental to my tea education through the T-Bar Club at The Cultured Cup. Kyle attended the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas recently and completed his three years of training with the Speciality Tea Institute to become the first certified tea specialist in Texas. I have had many pleasant times with Kyle and his staff, trading teas and sharing new tea discoveries. More than just a tea merchant I happen to buy tea from, Kyle is a culinary friend as well as a tea friend - the wonderful tea pairings at Sharon Hage's York Street restaurant and a shared interest in Asian food.

SO, I'm a little uninspired...I need to do a tasting tomorrow morning, pairing different styles/blends/roasts of coffee (which, exactly, will be a surprise to me) with different liquors/liqueurs for interesting/unusual/exciting taste sensations and all that. Everyone knows the basics, but I'm working with a very well-stocked bar, and they're expecting new and unusual combinations. What are your favorite/most interesting coffee-liquor combinations or cocktails?

The next Tea Tasting Discussion features an Indian black tea, an Assam Sree Sibari Estate . Bill Waddington at teasource.com is providing free 10 gram samples for three eG Society members and me. Each sample is enough to make about four cups of first infusion tea. I thought of Tea Source for a Tea Tasting Discussion due to two stunning Indian teas I ordered last year. Here is some background information from the Teasource site: The tasting is open to all members who have posted at least ten (10) substantive posts in the Coffee and Tea forum, and preference will be given until midnight (EDST) Monday June 1, 2009 to those who have not yet participated in any of the three previous tastings. As always, everyone is welcome to participate in the discussion, whether or not you receive a sample. So, please PM me now if you would like to receive one of the the free samples and participate in the tasting and discussion.

eG Society member Kyle Stewart at The Cultured Cup is contributing three Japanese green teas for tastings here in the Coffee & Tea forum. The first is a Kukicha Fukamushi. In the interest of having tasting discussions about more teas this year while holding down my cost of shipping samples, I am now asking participating tea merchants to supply samples for three members plus me. So Kyle has provided three samples of 10 grams each that I will mail to the three eG Society members participating in this tasting. While the tasting is open to all members who have posted at least five substantive posts in the Coffee and Tea forum, preference will be given until midnight (EDST) Tuesday to those who have not yet participated in either of the three previous tastings. As always, everyone is welcome to participate in the discussion. So, please PM me if you would like to receive one of the the free samples and participate in the tasting and discussion. Here is some background information on Kukicha Fukamushi. As I have mentioned in other topics, I have known Kyle Stewart for some time now, having bought tea from his shop for many years, at least 10 years I believe it is. And for the past three years or so Kyle has been instrumental to my tea education through the T-Bar Club at The Cultured Cup. I have had many pleasant times with Kyle and his staff, trading teas and sharing new tea discoveries. More than just a tea merchant I happen to buy tea from, Kyle is a culinary friend as well as a tea friend - the wonderful tea pairings at Sharon Hage's York Street restaurant and a shared interest in Thai food with dinner at Thai-riffic. Kyle attended the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas recently and completed his three years of training with the Speciality Tea Institute to become the first certified tea specialist in Texas.

I took a fantastic cupping class today at Intelligentsia's Training Lab. Our small group was led by Daniel and David - two incredibly knowledgeable and passionate coffee guys. Learned how to taste coffee and evaluate and appreciate their various properties. I had a minimal amount of knowledge going in (pretty much amounting to "I like coffee"), and in an hour and a half my eyes have been opened. It seems I have quite a bit to learn. My upcoming trip to Seattle should help my education. They offer a variety of classes on tasting, cupping, brewing, pairings. Highly, highly recommend if you're interested in coffee. (And it was recession-friendly: $10 and beans to take home.) Has anyone else been? Intelligentsia NY Training Lab

This is the third tea tasting of 2009 thanks to eGullet Society member Greg Glancy of Norbutea.com. This time around we will be tasting and discussing a 2008 shu (ripe) pu-erh, a classic 7572 recipe from Menghai Tea Factory in China. The samples were taken from a 357 gram beeng. Greg has provided five samples of 10 grams each that I will mail to the five eG Society members participating in this tasting. While the tasting is open to all members who have posted at least five substantive posts in the Coffee and Tea forum, preference will be given until midnight next Tuesday to those who did not participate in either of the two previous tastings of TGY Oolong and Imperial Dian Hong. Everyone is welcome to participate in the discussion, of course. So, please PM me if you would like to receive one of the the free samples and participate in the tasting and discussion. Here is some background information on this Menghai shu pu-ehr from Norbutea.com. (Copyright Norbutea. Used with permission.)

Another matter to keep in mind when tea shopping: 4 ounces of loose tea will brew 40 to 50 cups on average (this is Western style, one infusion). Do the math; tea can cost considerably MORE per pound than coffee, but less per cup! From the TeaSource.com website: "Tea is the most affordable luxury in the world. But at first glance it may seem expensive. A tea that costs $100.00 per pound only costs 50 cents per cup when brewed. A pound of tea will typically yield 200 cups (vs. 40-50 cups from a pound of coffee). Also, many of the teas in our collection will yield as many as 4-6 infusions from the same leaves (particularly oolongs and greens). For many teas, those later infusions yield the most interesting flavors. Since most of the caffeine is released in the first infusion, this is also a way to reduce the caffeine content."

I am an everyday tea drinker. I came to the US 20 years ago, and gave up tea for coffeefor many years because it was too hard to find tea that didn't taste like vegetable water. My budget is basically very very low. I am laid off at the moment and trying to keep costs down. But here is what i drink, and my strategy for maximum tea, minimum budget. from the Indian Store: Brook Bond ( I think) Green Label. Green Label is Darjeeling. No flushes mentioned, but as long as it is made properly, makes a great cup of tea, for my taste. Tetley Massala Chai bags, decent but not fabulous. For real masala chai i get CTC tea, i like Taj Mahal, and boil it up with cardamom, ginger and pepper. from China Town: Keemun in a little orange tin oolong in a pretty tin (this is not good oolong, but it brews up fine for a quick cup of tea.) I also have some lychee tea in a lovely pink tin, its pretty disgusting, but it was $2 and the tin is cute. On Top of this i have the ends of a bag of Lapsang souchong, this si my favorite and I ration it out. When i get really broke i mix it with assam or something of that nature. I have a little bag of golden tippy assam also from the tea shop. its ok but not worth the money Also i have a box of barry's tea bag, irish brekfast and gold blend, because they taste like home. I always drink my tea with milk, so my choices reflect this. I only put sugar in Massala Chai, but i find that needs it. so there... there are my teas. Cheap and very basic.

Any favorite books that give an overall education of coffee?

Every Sunday my family "volunteers" to make coffee for our community for 50 to 350+ people. We use those old fashioned electric coffee pots that take forever to brew 90-100 cups and clean-up is a real pain you know where. We are considering modernizing, installing a built in restaurant type coffee machine system that would produce large quantities of coffee in minimum of time. If you use an efficient coffee system you can recommend, would you, please share the information. Thanks in advance.

I know I am not the only one who has a favorite coffee cup or who has accumulated a few for a variety of reasons. So show us your coffee cups. One or a hundred. (I am truly afraid that someone out there has a collection of 1,000 in their garage.) I'll take some pics and post some of mine in a few days.

Moderator's Note: There have been other topics about home coffee brewers, which have been merged and closed. To review those posts, please click here. After 8-9 years of every day service, our Cuisinart coffeemaker is not likely to last too much longer. I have not been able to find a source to replace just the one broken part, and my limited repair skills are exhausted. We have a good espresso machine, and I am not too sure about the single cup thing-ies -- so I need something like this: a standalone electric, with an advance set timer that can make 5-6 decent mugs of coffee in the wee hours of the morning. There is plenty of room for anything. I would prefer NOT to have it also grind (that I can manage to do) since I worry that two appliances in one is twice the chance for something to go wrong and break. They still sell this particular Cuisinart (it is a DCC-12 or close to that number). But the reviews on Amazon indicate a lot of people have trouble with them breaking down. If I have already used up my luck with this Cuisinart, I am going to need a good recommendation. Thanks!

This is the second tea tasting of 2009 thanks to eGullet Society member Greg Glancy of Norbutea.com. This time we will be tasting and discussing an Imperial Dian Hong -- a Chinese red tea. Greg has provided five samples of 10 grams each that I will mail to the five eG Society members participating in this tasting. While the tasting is open to all members who have posted at least five substantive posts in the Coffee and Tea forum, preference will be given until midnight next Monday to those who did not participate in the last tasting of TGY Oolong. Please PM me if you would like to participate in the tasting and discussion. Here is some background information on Imperial Dian Hong from Norbutea.com. (Copyright Norbutea. Used with permission.)

Since the tea people have been posting interesting shots of their wares, I though it would be interesting to see what everyone is using for coffee. Should be an interesting contrast, since I expect coffee brewing setups to be more industrial and high tech whereas tea brewing setups tend to lean artisanal and low tech -- for the fanatics, anyway. The must obvious comparison would be a tricked out espresso machine versus a yixing teapot. This contrast is not universally true, of course. I'm sure there are some high tech tea brewing setups, and some coffee lovers use a simple cone filter. But it seems more or less accurate in a general sort of way. Speaking of tricked out espresso setups, here is mine. Relatively humble compared to many other machines, but does the trick for me. On the left is a Rancilio doserless Rocky grinder. The machine is a Rancilio Silvia hacked with a dual-setpoint Watlow 96 PID controller that regulates both the brewing and steaming temperatures. This was fairly tricky to install, because you have to partially remove the front panel of the machine to gain access to the steam switch (you also have to remove the front and internal splashplates and the top and back panels, but that is not so tricky). Once installed, however, it's been sweet. All I have to do is turn on the steam switch like normal and the PID automatically kicks over to the higher setpoint for steaming. The other material modification I did on the machine is to replace the regular steam tip with a three-hole steam tip. As it so happens, I have three portafilters. Overkill, I know, but I acquired them at different times. In the machine is a bottomless portafilter with a La Marzocco triple basket inside. That's what I use pretty much all the time. Over on top of the knock box is a regular (with bottom) double spout Rancilio pro portafilter. I got this when I first bought the machine, because it was considerably heavier than the stock portafilter. This was back before people were doing the bottomless portafilter thing. Also on the knock box is the stock portafilter, retrofitted with a single spout. I really never use this for its intended purpose, and keep it mostly fitted with a blank insert for backflushing. On top are some Miscela D'Oro branded espresso and cappuccino cups. I have cups from a number of different brands, but I like the Miscela D'Oro ones the best because they are the thickest. Especially the espresso cups, which are the thickest I have ever found. Down on the tray are my tampers. On the right is the Ergo-Packer from Espresso Vivace (aka "old busted") and on the left is my new C-Ripple tamper from Reg Barber (aka "new hotness"). As you can see, the whole thing is on some Metro Shelving, and I store some sheet pans underneath. This is really convenient when it comes to cleanup, because I can just sweep away any coffee grinds and the fall through onto the sheet pan, where they are easily dumped into the sink. Who's next?

I like press pot coffee. Can I just brew the coffee in a stock pot and strain through a chinois into thermoses? Maybe without force it would take too long to filter through the grounds, but maybe with a big enough strainer this wouldn't be an issue. Any thoughts?

Hi everybody- Where can I find a recipe for mit schlage? I would like to make some coffee drinks for the holidays and top them with it. I havent been able to find anything other than a basic whipped cream recipe. Thanks for all of your help.

I'm putting together a gift basket for a couple of people who enjoy cheese. I took my first trip to a real cheese shop last night, and spent over an hour tasting cheeses to get the right ones. I ended up getting five different, strong cheeses: - Cashel Blue - Trou du Cru - L'Ami du Chambertin (tastes like shellfish) - Leyden - Carré du Berry - sweet, with golden raisins instead of herbs Now I'm thinking that, in addition to the cheeses, crackers, and other accompaniments, it would be nice to get some coffee that would go well with the cheese. These people aren't wine drinkers, and they also enjoy having a breakfast of cheese on bread or bagels, with the usual morning coffee on the side. I'm considering searching out a couple varieties of coffee that would go well with some of the cheeses. Is this something I can pull off? Can I find coffee to pair with those cheeses? Any other ideas for accompaniments or pairings are certainly welcome.