Tea

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I'd like to share my tea story.

I drink tea, always have, got it from my mom. She would nightly make a cup of tea so I picked up on it. Pretty unusual for Americans as I don't know anyone else who drank actual hot tea, with milk, and occasionally honey. Until I attached to my regiment for deployment to Afghan. Met this guy who also drank tea as a night cap as I did, although the military puts a real damper on that. When we deployed we started a bunch of traditions for our section, the big 2 were every Thursday from 10p to whenever the party broke was cigars and whatever whiskey you could get your hands on in the smoke pit of the sleeping area. Cigars were easy, you could walk into any PX, didn't have to be American, and buy cigars, even Cubans which we technically couldn't have. Booze was harder, there was booze in the British and EU PX, but they wouldn't sell to us as we weren't allowed to have it. But you had your hook ups and since our soiree was also visited by our major, 2 captains, and a master guns, the Thursday drinking was ignored. We even become "honorary" members of the officers cigar club on Leatherneck and those guys would visit occasionally. Sorry got side tracked, I'm quite proud of our Thursday tradition.

On to the tea. We weren't ingrates, we wanted tea, but from actual tea making countries. You know countries that would go to war if some fools threw their tea in a harbor, for example. Problem is we are in Afghanistan and buying from places that would actually ship to a FPO is difficult. More difficult considering this isn't an American company and it was unusual for non-American companies to ship to FPOs. We were trying to buy something like 15 assorted boxes from twinings. So we wrote them, asking if they could amend their shipping policy to ship to an FPO, we were more than willing to pay whatever the cost they deemed fit. Well these big dick English motherfuckers replied back with don't worry about it "Tea is on its way to ya yanks". They sent us 3 huge boxes, filled with everything they had, and a 4th box with a proper English tea pot with a big Ole union jack on it. Every morning at 930 post our oncoming Intel brief we had breakfast tea and whatever biscuits we could get from the chowhalls. And nightly at 830p we would sit down for a daily after action with whatever tea we decided (usually a night time style one). These events proved more popular as time wore on, weekly we'd have base higher ups in for the Intel briefs and when they saw our set up would ask and join us, came to a point when people came by just for tea. We kept a well stocked section, about 4 months in we ordered another 2 boxes, but this time Twinings let us pay because we more or less demanded it.

I still drink Twinings exclusively to this day, just due to their kindness.

My buddy and I were last out the country for our deployment, we had a lot of turnover and training. We left the tea pot and the order info for the next crew, as well as the Thursday night cigars and best places to get whiskey, but we were turning over to a different regiment of California faggots and they didn't respect the traditions. Writing was on the wall when we were doing the Thursday night smoke out and it was myself, friend, and our major all left over and we got 1 guy from the Cali regiment that wasn't a tool. This fucking 2nd lt showed up just to smoke his nightly cigarette and we offered him a swig of some good scotch I got from the UK run chowhall guys. Fucking boot started to lay into me and my major lit his ass up quite loudly. After the 2nd lt scampered off I looked at my major and said unfortunately it looks like Thursday nights will not be respected, he just had a sad smile in response. It's possible they carried on with the tea. So long ago now and really who gives a fuck what they do once we were gone and playing golf and drinking scotch for 6 months before EAS.
 
Well. The day I dreaded is at hand.

I'm down to the last box of my Daintree stash. It's taken a while, but I've drunk an entire crate of tea. It was delicious. I loved every moment of it.

I also want my stash back. I'm madly calculating how much it'd cost for me to order enough tea direct from the plantation to fill the crate back up again. It's... a lot of money. Without a supermarket acting as intermediary, the plantation is charging roughly three times as much on their tea as the supermarket did.

I may have to cut back on my tea consumption...
 
I can't drink my blueberry herbal tea, just peppermint tea and water *sigh*
 
there's only two teas I drink. strong-ass homemade chai, and fruity-ass hibiscus tea from the box of bags.
I used to drink a lot of earl grey but coffee just took over the mornings.

I've got a nice Chinese tea set, iron pot and strainer and cups. tea blocks and dried loose leaf, a few "chrysanthemum tea" floret things. I've only used it once.
 
I like Harney & Sons Paris blend a lot. I'd never had black currant anything before, it made me a little obsessed. Wound up getting some black currant jam to have on toast with it. Nice way to start the day.
 
cuddle striker said:
I used to drink a lot of earl grey but coffee just took over the mornings.
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Just wait until coffee becomes a source of mourning and earl grey rules the day. I suddenly became very sensitive to caffeine and growing up I always drank the dank grey so I switched back. It's so good, I had forgotten how good it was. Fruity teas can go fuck each other, Earl Grey is my eternal platonic live-in friend now.
 
I started really getting into teas this past year. So far I quite like Earl Grey, masala Chai and pinhead Gunpowder. I want to try a good brand of Earl Grey thats not going to break my bank. Currently using Harney and Sons.

Note: I am also a fucking animal and make a gallon at a time.
 

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My favorite tea is the standard American Classic tea grown in South Carolina. Surprisingly good for American made tea, but some of the enjoyment is probably from memories of field trips to the plantation, which has now changed it's name to garden because plantation is racist or something.

You can get it on Amazon.
 
I learned how to make a good London Fog but it's very sugary so I try not to do it often. Before bed I will sometimes have this fruit infusion mix with some citrus fruits and a little peppermint I think. I'll have to look up the ingredients. Trying to venture more into the tea world but most of what I like is filled with milk and sugar. Alas.

I like coffee but it goes through me like draino.
 
I like my tea unsweet. Is (unsweet) tea bad on your kidneys?
 
BiggerChungus said:
I like my tea unsweet. Is (unsweet) tea bad on your kidneys?
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You mean you don't put sugar in it? Is that all? As far as I'm able to ascertain, tea has the same effect as any other caffeine rich food on the kidneys (source of stress, can produce stones), regardless of sugar content.

EDIT: There's also a substance called oxalate in tea, that can also generate kidney stones, but from what I gather you need to consume a metric fuckton of the stuff before it starts to have an effect.

Everything in moderation, as the saying goes.
 
glass_houses said:
You mean you don't put sugar in it? Is that all? As far as I'm able to ascertain, tea has the same effect as any other caffeine rich food on the kidneys (source of stress, can produce stones), regardless of sugar content.
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The main cause is dehydration, so unless you drink nothing but caffeinated beverages and no water, it's probably not that bad.
 
Unless you're that mutant in Utah who drank a gallon of iced tea every day, you shouldn't have to worry about kidney stones unless you're already prone to issues. Tea is generally hydrating overall, it takes pretty concentrated tea and a lot of it to overcome all the water you ingest with it.
 
glass_houses said:
EDIT: There's also a substance called oxalate in tea, that can also generate kidney stones, but from what I gather you need to consume a metric fuckton of the stuff before it starts to have an effect.

Everything in moderation, as the saying goes.
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Honestly you'd probably die of hyponatremia before the oxalates got you. Spinach smoothies might do it though. There's a case report of someone getting oxalate nephropathy from a spinach smoothie fast.

Fluoride is probably the most harmful component in tea but we're talking like a gallon+ a day before you start getting health problems.
 
glass_houses said:
You mean you don't put sugar in it? Is that all?
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Yep. I do use concentrated lemon juice though. I picked up drinking unsweet tea mixed with lemonade years ago when I stopped drinking soda, then eventually swapped out lemonade for straight lemon juice, so it's no sugar and nothing artificial. It all took a while to get used to, but I love it. Sweet drinks now just taste like pure sugar to me and I can't stomach them. I'd always heard that sugar wasn't good for your kidneys either, so I figured cutting it out entirely would make it better overall than something like sweet tea or soda especially.
 
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