dutch gold

zemon linger with honey

orange juice

Water.

Keep reading that word, and after a while, it starts to look like it is spelled wrong.

Weird.

murikkkan coffee

home made tomato soup. mmmmmmmmm (thanks mom)

Me? I'm rekindling my love of Fat Tire. I had stopped drinking it lately and switched more so to either sweet, malty Porters or puckering Double IPAs. However, sipping the delicious Amber Ale, I realize why I initially liked Fat Tire. Its an all-around "crafty" beer.

Ha, right... it makes great coffee though.

what's "murikkkan"

is that moroccan
or is it 'meriKKKan"?

--

im drinking sencha. as every day. because it's awesome.

It is, Sencha is awesome. Although, I've recently gotten a whisk as a gift and Matcha is all I've been drinking. Do you drink yours powdered or brewed?

I meant Americano, american style coffee, that's what we call it over here anyway. The press is also american, the beans are from Angola.

i've never seen those here. gringos nearly universally use the awful drip coffee pot-- the electric kind with a basket and a paper filter-- weak stuff. what people here call americano is after the italians, i.e., espresso with added water (a ww2 thing). i'm puzzed about that contraption now.

sencha rules, yeah, the one i drink daily is the typical sencha, not ground as matcha. i'd drink matcha more often if it weren't for the cost (the non-cooking kind anyway), but every now and then i get matcha-iri genmaicha, which is sencha + roasted rice + matcha, which is delicious (there is a non-matcha version of this, genmaicha, but tastes kinda weak for me, still worth tasting for the roasted flavor similar to hojicha).

good ceylon tea is also a thing from another planet. the flavor is just perfect.

I have been enjoying the non-alcoholic O'Douls Amber


regular O'Douls tastes like shit. This tastes more like a nice Bock.

Coffee basically means espresso here.

The penis pump looking contraption is called aeropress and it costs less than $30. Definitely get it plus the stainless steel filter.

ah, i googled the thing, it's a lot like a french press and i already have too many of those. and to confess-- i no longer drink much coffee (unless in need). tea provides a clearer-headed high and a much less harsh comedown for me. so yes, i'm a leaf fiend.

the whole zen ritual is more appealing.

you mean matcha?

forget the din of the world

Anyway, I know what you're saying but I don't drink tea all day so Matcha makes sense. And it's not hard to find 100g-200g containers which are more economical.

oh hell yes, matcha is super supreme and rules all.

i meant i dont' drink coffee cuz the harshness.

wuss

let's discuss that over a bottle of scotch

I'll tell you this.

The sense of relaxed alertness and focus that you get from the L-theanine on good green tea is unique and amazing.

You can't get it from coffee.

damn straight!

;) ha!

green tea tastes and smells like boiled lawn clippings.

ha ha ha. yeah, kryptonite, i know.


it's true that green tea leaves have a chlorophyll odor reminiscent of a freshly mowed lawn (which i really like), but if it tastes bad/ grassy you're brewing it wrong. first rule is--- don't boil the water!

I never boil the water for tea or coffee! I am no uncivilized cretin!!!!!

ha haha, good to know. now, i may be a cretin, but i do boil water for black tea.

exact measurements and precise temperatures are an overcomplication. unless the tea is very delicate use boiling water. that's not how you control flavour, you control it with the brew, with the time of the infusion.

green tea has what the japanese call an umami quality, a sweet and sour taste. like sweet potato.

if you don't like the taste you simply brew it again. you can brew it and re-brew it multiple times.

really, all you need is good water and good tea.

you can boil it and let it cool off 5-7 minutes afterward but i prefer to stop the water pre-boiling because of the dissolved air (which helps w/ taste).

temperature matters. water at the boiling point will make it bitter as it extracts more tannins.

the other thing is that caffeine dissolves even in cold water and your first brew will decaffeinate your tea. i love re-brewed sencha (i do no more than 2 additional rebrews), but it's more mellow and not stimulating. so i'll drink it in the evening.

btw, i was looking at matcha prices around here. the ceremonial kind sells for $30 an ounce! (28g). a lesser one is $16/oz. i know the matcha spoon is tiny, but at the rates i drink, i'd probably be spending hundreds a month just to keep up.

maybe i'll pick up just a little for the occasional kick.

If you use an enclosed pot and you don't let it boil forever, the mineral qualities that you'd hypothetically lose are insignificant to nothing.

but whatever floats your boat. sure, you can get into that sort of minutia.

I assure you that they don't use thermometers in Asia.

again, you control it with the brew.


dude, no, you do it in very short steeps.


Re Matcha: Yeah, you don't drink it all day, it's not buckwheat.
That's what Russians do, they drink buckwheat all day (in tea or in the vodka variety).

Sure, you can use Sencha for that, you can drink it all day, add some matcha to it if you like the caffeine punch.

boiling water creates a "flat" flavor. Water should be heated to just before boiling point for coffee and tea.

i remember years ago reading some old zen text that said to let the water cool off before adding the green tea-- back in the day, that's how they did it

but nowadays, there's zojirushi

if you say so, rob.
ah, really? i don't think you need an old zen book.

did they boil the water or not? haha
nice. ah jesus christ that's pretty pathetic.

they did, but they let it cool before brewing. also with oolong tea.

me, i stop it right before because my boiler heats fast.

the zojirushi is water boiler, not a teapot. i.e., you pour water out of that contraption and into the teapot of your choice-- like that one you posted-- beautiful.

"We have taken the everyday task of boiling water and made it into a science.

SCIENCE!"


You guys have a good evening, I'm out of here.

ha ha haha

eh, who can understand the japanese?


anyway, here a link to their "encyclopedia"

http://www.zojirushi.com/product/product_wb_02.html#w7

It does, that's why you drink spiced Black tea ;)

And coffee black and thick as sludge out a french press (but mine broke recently so instead of drinking drip brewed I'm just taking a coffee sabbatical.