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How About A Cup Of The Answer To Everything?
Reiner Schulz writes "Douglas Adams admittedly was a big fan of Earl Grey tea. Here's his enlightening entry in H2G2 on the subject (pretty much straight out of The Salmon of Doubt). And those familiar w/ the Hitchhiker's Guide will remember the drink dispenser from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe which, trying to figure out how to brew the perfect cuppa, grabs all available computing resources on board a certain starship. What a coincidence then that one of the finest blends of Earl Grey on the planet in general and in the UK in particular is Harrods' Earl Grey, Blend No. ... 42 . It's a plausible theory as to the origin of the answer to everything, isn't it? Earl Grey addicts like myself will certainly agree (even though Douglas liked his w/ milk; I prefer lemon). So, what would be the question? Perhaps, how about a nice cup of tea?"
Another h2g2.com entry, 42, explains that "forty-two" can be parsed "for-tea-two", tea for two, the answer to "What is a good attitude towards life?" which is purported to be the Ultimate Question.
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If you aren't able to stretch the budget to the Harrods blend, I'd strongly recommend the foil-packed Dilmah (100% ceylon) variety, which is about the freshest, and most fragrant I've been able to fine in Australia.
Ian
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It really is quite good, and you can order some for yourself online at Harrods Web Site
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/U42 - Douglas Adam's user page. Notice his user ID: 42.
If Earl Grey is a "blend", then one of its components must taste even better.
What if the most desirable components of Earl Grey is actually formed from one of the components of merchandise A and one of the components of merchandise 7X?
Basic linear programming.
Is taste a linear function?
Will I retire or break 10K?
I hate to ruin all the conspiracy theories, but Mr. Adams himself revealed the source of 42 years ago in alt.fan.douglas-adams.
"Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk,
stared into the garden and thought '42 will do' I typed it out. End of story."
If you really like chai, don't be buying some Stash stuff in a baggie. Buy some decent black tea (Dilmah is good, as another poster notes) and add your own spices to the pot. There are loads of recipes to experiment with on the net.
If you've never read anything by Douglas Adams then may I suggest you start now ? You'll be sure to enjoy it, it's some of the finest English writing of by a man that died way too soon.
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Earl Grey doesn't need lemon, because it's got bergamot. If you need to put more citrus in your Earl Grey, you should get stronger Earl Grey. If you're going to put lemon in it, get a nice Orange Pekoe instead.
This is probably bit off topic. however. the drink dispeser was not at the Restaurant At The end of the Universe. It was in the middle of space while being attacks by Vogans. And it was arthur dent he had asked the question "Why do I Like Tea?"
To paraphrase Slartibartfast:
"These things will become clear to you," said the old man gently, "at least," he added with slight doubt in his voice, "clearer than they are at the moment."
Read the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy books. In fact, expose yourself to any of Douglas Adams works in any medium and you will not regret it.
It was Arthur Dent who was responsible for this. Sorry to be pedantic, but some things are important :-).
Actually, most teas are known to have more caffeine than coffee. Good enough reason to switch!
It's better to burn out than to fade away
This is a common misperception held because dry coffee has less caffeine than dry tea. Most people would agree that It's the content of the brewed cup that matters.
Depending on the blend of tea you can get vastly different ammounts of caffeine (herbal infusions don't have any caffeine). Generally even a straight blend of the Camellia Sinensis plant will yield less caffeine in the final brewed cup than coffee. A cup of black tea will average about half of the caffeine ammount of your average cup of coffee (80mg)
The truth is more important than the facts.
-Frank Lloyd Wright
Before Earl Grey, before the Brits were hooked on Tea, in central and south Asian countries people drank tea all the time. The best flavors are known to come from Quetta, Pakistan where hundereds of professional tea tasters in the markets there blend tea imported from Kenya to Sri Lanka to China to India and export them. Quetta's tea is well known in other cities of Pakistan and many places around the world.
Earl Grey seems to be closest in taste to the tea commonly drunk in Pakistan, yet its not quite that good either. It has a papery taste. I was hooked to the non-brand name tea of Quetta until I came to the USA and had to contend myself with Eary Grey between the times when my visiting friends would bring me some from Quetta.
British companies have even tried to grab the Basmati rice of India and Pakistan, some company in the USA tried to patent that. Call it what you will, even the stamp of the name of a white guy doesnt make it QUITE as good in taste as the original Quetta tea or India Basmati. Grape seeds for wine and recipes for beer were stolen from Europe a long time ago but Americans still prefer to import the genuine article from Europe. Nothing beats the original.(Except maybe copies of Sega ROMS:)
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
Does this mean that Earl Grey is selling a substance that is almost, but not quite, completely unlike tea?
"Earl Grey" aren't selling anything since EG is just a name for a certain blend of tea, like mocha java is for coffee. This particular blend of EG was sold by the UK department store Harrods'.
Earl Grey is fine and dandy, but if you really want to enjoy your tea, you should make it from dried cubensis. That way you'll really have some insightful (or not) thoughts on life, the universe and everything.
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Another very good Earl Grey is Taylor's of Harrogate. It's very smooth, and the bergamot flavoring tastes natural, unlike many Earl Greys.
As for EG's to avoid, I would stay away from Bigelow (unnatural flavor), Tazo (Starbucks brand, too strong and bitter), and Stash (bergamot flavoring tastes funny).
Taylor's also makes several other fine teas such as Lapsang Souchong (tea smoked over pine needles I believe) and Scottish Breakfast (a very bright, strong tea). Buy the leaf tea and brew it with a tea strainer or french press, it's much better than using bags.
Some of you may already know that there exists an ISO standard for brewing the ideal cup of tea. It is ISO 3103 (which is also a British Standard -- BS 6008), and is available for download here.
Also, one of my pet ideas is that it people here in the U.S. prefer coffee over tea simply because of a boycott that started when the Boston tea party happened. Sadly, it looks as if there has been an anti-tea sentiment here ever since.
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And the best, the only, the ONE TRUE WAY to brew tea is with a coffee press. The local Chinese bakery & tea shop does it this way, and it makes much better tea than anything else I've ever used.
(Bodum's website is at http://www.bodum.com, if you're interested in seeing a most heinously Microsoft-centric mess)