A Couple of Random Comments

[omorka]

Hey, quantumduck, is tea still common in SmallWorld, or is it mostly a coffee-driven society?

Either way, I'm really thinking of buying Borealis's Tea Set, despite the unliklihood that I'd ever really get to use it. Not that it matches my design aesthetic, particularly, but if I'm buying test tubes and graduated cylinders to appease her, I should at least have her tea set, ne?

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In other news, I posted the answers to the song lyric meme.

Comments

Why are you asking me?

[quantumduck.livejournal.com]

Don't ask me, I just work here.

Seriously though, I imagine tea would be even more common in the future. So many societies use variations on tea. As the world gets smaller we'll all be able to enjoy more interesting varieties of dried plant matter immersed in heated liquids to bring out flavour.

I'm hopeless about tea myself. I enjoy good tea when it's served to me, but I tend to want to cream and sugar the hell out of anything I drink(You should see me drink lemonaide). Thai Ice Tea rocks. It already HAS too much creme and sugar in it, so nobody stares at you. I have a need to get a good Earl Grey in me from time to time (well LOOK at the guy. Who wouldn't want some of that?). Where was I? Ah, yes: tea. Now that I've hopefully distracted you with talk of man on man action I can freely admit that I enjoy tea bags. Hmm, perhaps I should not have started with the gay sex talk, and then ended on tea bags. That just gives the wrong impression about WHAT I am talking about. I mean that I use a microwave to heat water, then put one of those little packets of freeze dried tea in it. I pretent that the result is tea. If someone were to ask me what I was drinking I would say 'tea'. I know that on some level that isn't right, but I don't have all the tea equipement, and since I'm just going to cover over the taste with sugar and creme anyway...

There. My tea sins are revelaed.

Cool tea set. You should get it. Then again, it's totally MY style. If I were imagining a tea set for the good Doctor it would resemble that one. I really go in for the faux modern stuff.

[princejvstin.livejournal.com]

Wow, I love that set! Where do you get it?!

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Stash Tea (http://www.stashtea.com/) carries it - search under "tea sets;" it's the Bodum Le Pot set.

Re: Why are you asking me?

[omorka.livejournal.com]

I'm enough of a traditionalist myself that I cringe a bit at anything plastic coming anywhere near tea, but I'll admit it's a practical solution to the problem of having the cup's handle not heat up too much. I think Borealis One and the Twos, in particular, would think it fairly elegant. Either way, it fits in with the lab decor.

I'd always thought of SmallWorld as a coffee sort of society - driven by the spiritual successors to Starbucks and the like - but I can see its sort of forced-melting-pot overbearing multiculturalism producing Starbucks-like places where you can get coffee, tea, mate, rooibos, honeybush, or herbal infusions, as you wish, all of which taste more or less the same, and all of which you automatically add sugar, lo-fat milk, and flavoring syrup to.

I can't talk about the cream and sugar, as I'm the one who was wanting to add honey and lemon to a jasmine green the other day. Adulterants don't bother me unless someone adds both milk and lemon to the same cup. I will admit, though, that I prefer loose tea to teabags (which is one reason I bought a tea pitcher I didn't need - it allows me to steep loose tea sun-tea style in the pitcher (can we say Southern bluestocking, ladies and gentlemen?)).

I can't claim to be a good tea snob, as I'm far too fond of flavored teas. I even like Bigelow's Constant Comment, which, as any good tea snob knows, is way over-flavored. I'm the Republic of Tea's bitch, and while I certainly enjoy their estate teas and oolongs, my favorites are things like Cinnamon Plum and Vanilla Almond. The latter of which I especially enjoy with a heaping spoonful of demerara sugar and too much half-and-half.

Re: Why are you asking me?

[quantumduck.livejournal.com]

I've figured Coffee would be overtaken by some other stimulant, just as sasparilla was once the #1 drink , but lost out to colas in the early 20th century. The post-Starbucks faux multicultural world you describe already exists to some degree. I have become a fan of 'The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf' chain. They have a fair number of Coffee alternatives that don't suck.

As to tea snobbery, I still draw the distinction betwen 'real' teas and the dried fruit and flowers stuff that seems to dominate the marketplace these days. Flavoured teas are still tea to my way of thinking, but in much the way that a banana split is still icecream.

Re: Why are you asking me?

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Ironically enough (or maybe it just sucks), the day before you posted this, I purchased an herbal infusion called "Flowering Fruits."

[small voice] it's really good [/smallvoice]

However, as it's "wine-dark," as Homer might call it, it's obviously not G.-safe. At any rate, herbals are nice, but they're no more tea than mate, rooibos, or coffee are.