UK energy

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Cugel
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Re: UK energy

Post by Cugel »

Mick F wrote: 27 Oct 2022, 6:32pm Tea bags! :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

Loose tea, brewed in a proper teapot for me please.
Not bought a teabag ........... maybe never ever ever.
Change your ways! Save money and have interesting mental adventures. Avoid ossification of the parts, especially the one in the head. :-)

Cugel
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
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Cugel
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Re: UK energy

Post by Cugel »

simonineaston wrote: 6 Dec 2022, 8:23am
Loose tea, brewed in a proper teapot for me please.
Not bought a teabag... maybe never ever ever.
In some ways, the teabag represents a watershed. Before they came into common use, we were used to making food from scratch, buying ingredients and preparing dishes ourselves. The benefits to us as consumers are clear: we stayed in control of the preparation and enjoyed the unadulterated product.
Then the food processing industry came along and saw an opportunity. Now they control the product and the process and so profit from that control. As consumers we're sold a commodity that tastes like tea, not of tea. We've lost the ability to enjoy the tea experience (well, most of us have - people like Mick who are preapred to take the time and trouble to do it properly haven't). The industry sell us this loss by fooling us with advertising.
What started with teabags, continues to spread, like mould through a barrel of apples, across the whole food industry. They sell us stuff that tastes like food, we roll over to have tummies tickled and they pocket the difference. More fool us.
All troo ..... but ..... some things are improved by a touch of technology, the tea in a bag being one of them ..... if you buy the right ones. "Wot right ones", you ask, with a raised eyebrow? Those from a proper tea shop that contain various real tea leaves rather than dust; and which don't come with their own weight in packaging.

Less hot water wasted than with a tea pot; the ability for a group to drink different teas at the same tea party; a handy bit of compost for the garden instead of blocking the drain with mugglies from the rinsed teapot.

Cugel, probably a Progressive now.
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
francovendee
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Re: UK energy

Post by francovendee »

Cugel wrote: 6 Dec 2022, 8:58am
simonineaston wrote: 6 Dec 2022, 8:23am
Loose tea, brewed in a proper teapot for me please.
Not bought a teabag... maybe never ever ever.
In some ways, the teabag represents a watershed. Before they came into common use, we were used to making food from scratch, buying ingredients and preparing dishes ourselves. The benefits to us as consumers are clear: we stayed in control of the preparation and enjoyed the unadulterated product.
Then the food processing industry came along and saw an opportunity. Now they control the product and the process and so profit from that control. As consumers we're sold a commodity that tastes like tea, not of tea. We've lost the ability to enjoy the tea experience (well, most of us have - people like Mick who are preapred to take the time and trouble to do it properly haven't). The industry sell us this loss by fooling us with advertising.
What started with teabags, continues to spread, like mould through a barrel of apples, across the whole food industry. They sell us stuff that tastes like food, we roll over to have tummies tickled and they pocket the difference. More fool us.
All troo ..... but ..... some things are improved by a touch of technology, the tea in a bag being one of them ..... if you buy the right ones. "Wot right ones", you ask, with a raised eyebrow? Those from a proper tea shop that contain various real tea leaves rather than dust; and which don't come with their own weight in packaging.

Less hot water wasted than with a tea pot; the ability for a group to drink different teas at the same tea party; a handy bit of compost for the garden instead of blocking the drain with mugglies from the rinsed teapot.

Cugel, probably a Progressive now.
You modernist trendies miss the po(in)t 8) . It's the ceremony of the tea drinking that I like. Shoving a bag in a cup just doesn't cut it
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simonineaston
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Re: UK energy

Post by simonineaston »

To change tack a bit, I was in discussion with Guardian readers earlier, on the subject of fuel efficiency, when a couple from SA offered the notion of a Wonderbag, of which I had never heard, so here for you, dear reader, is that thing.
Wonderbag is a stand-alone, non-electric insulated bag designed to reduce the amount of fuel required in the cooking of food in developing countries. (or any other place, I suppose)
Older readers, or those with a liking for the Swallows And Amazons series will be nodding wisely and saying, "That's just a hay box." and they'll be right of course.
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
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al_yrpal
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Re: UK energy

Post by al_yrpal »

Franco is your tea ceremony like the Japanese one? What do the French think of it? :lol:

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
Pendodave
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Re: UK energy

Post by Pendodave »

The huge and fascinating range of loose leaf tea just isn't available in a bag.
Just have a teapot that matches your consumption to avoid waste.
One with a removable basket facilitates leaf disposal.
There are few enough pleasures in life. Proper tea is an easy, cheap and non-dangerous one!
roubaixtuesday
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Re: UK energy

Post by roubaixtuesday »

al_yrpal wrote: 6 Dec 2022, 8:53am The EU tried to ban coffee machines that kept things hot as not being green.
If only the production of hot air about EU regulations could be ceased, imagine the savings!

Shocking though, that regulations give consumers guarantees on the efficiency of appliances, and suppliers a level playing field to prevent a race to the bottom on efficiency. And this helping to keep the lights on and reduce dependence on Russian gas too! Awful.
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Mick F
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Re: UK energy

Post by Mick F »

Two-cup insulated teapot with a removable basket for the tea.
Excellent bit of kit. :D
Bought years ago, and used twice or three times a day.

I buy loose tea from a proper grocer's shop in Tavistock. Assam, usually.
https://www.carters-deli.co.uk

Mrs Mick F is a coffee drinker - she doesn't like tea - and she's got a two-cup insulated cafetiere.
Mick F. Cornwall
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simonineaston
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Re: UK energy

Post by simonineaston »

The EU tried to ban coffee machines that kept things hot...
Blimey - that's an old chestnut! Haven't heard that one for nigh on a decade... this from a 2014 Sky News web page:
New rules designed to make domestic appliances more efficient came in on January 1. Last year, they were interpreted in some parts of the media as a death sentence for the humble coffee machine. Not so, says the European Commission – it's just that any coffee machine made after 1 January 2015 must have an energy efficiency option allowing the hotplate or element to go into standby after a certain period. Older machines are unaffected.
My emboldening - but of course the fab. thing is now we can make our own coffee machines that can stay on forever and keep our coffee perfectly stewed all day long! :wink:
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
francovendee
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Re: UK energy

Post by francovendee »

al_yrpal wrote: 6 Dec 2022, 9:10am Franco is your tea ceremony like the Japanese one? What do the French think of it? :lol:

Al
French tea is rubbish, even those marked up as English Breakfast Tea. Very weak brews.
We've converted a number of friends to English builders tea.
Tea should be drunk at a table with biscuits (digestives) available, never 'on the go'.
Coffee is the fill in drink for times when we're in the middle of something.
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al_yrpal
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Re: UK energy

Post by al_yrpal »

We have a very nice tea/coffee shop here in Taunton. The big supermarkets stock their teabags which give a strong taste. Various expensive other so called teas too. I find the various Aldi beans quite good for everyday drinking. So far our DeLonghi bean to cup coffee machine has made 11,409 cups!

https://www.mr-miles.co.uk/product-category/tea/

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
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al_yrpal
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Re: UK energy

Post by al_yrpal »

simonineaston wrote: 6 Dec 2022, 9:08am To change tack a bit, I was in discussion with Guardian readers earlier, on the subject of fuel efficiency, when a couple from SA offered the notion of a Wonderbag, of which I had never heard, so here for you, dear reader, is that thing.
Wonderbag is a stand-alone, non-electric insulated bag designed to reduce the amount of fuel required in the cooking of food in developing countries. (or any other place, I suppose)
Older readers, or those with a liking for the Swallows And Amazons series will be nodding wisely and saying, "That's just a hay box." and they'll be right of course.
I have sat in many meetings with the Chinese who always arrive with green tea and vacuum flasks. Tea is drunk throughout meetings. As there is no kettle in evidence I can only assume flasks happened because of lack of power points? However, its a very 'green' practice that I approve of.

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
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Cugel
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Re: UK energy

Post by Cugel »

francovendee wrote: 6 Dec 2022, 9:05am
Cugel wrote: 6 Dec 2022, 8:58am
simonineaston wrote: 6 Dec 2022, 8:23am In some ways, the teabag represents a watershed. Before they came into common use, we were used to making food from scratch, buying ingredients and preparing dishes ourselves. The benefits to us as consumers are clear: we stayed in control of the preparation and enjoyed the unadulterated product.
Then the food processing industry came along and saw an opportunity. Now they control the product and the process and so profit from that control. As consumers we're sold a commodity that tastes like tea, not of tea. We've lost the ability to enjoy the tea experience (well, most of us have - people like Mick who are preapred to take the time and trouble to do it properly haven't). The industry sell us this loss by fooling us with advertising.
What started with teabags, continues to spread, like mould through a barrel of apples, across the whole food industry. They sell us stuff that tastes like food, we roll over to have tummies tickled and they pocket the difference. More fool us.
All troo ..... but ..... some things are improved by a touch of technology, the tea in a bag being one of them ..... if you buy the right ones. "Wot right ones", you ask, with a raised eyebrow? Those from a proper tea shop that contain various real tea leaves rather than dust; and which don't come with their own weight in packaging.

Less hot water wasted than with a tea pot; the ability for a group to drink different teas at the same tea party; a handy bit of compost for the garden instead of blocking the drain with mugglies from the rinsed teapot.

Cugel, probably a Progressive now.
You modernist trendies miss the po(in)t 8) . It's the ceremony of the tea drinking that I like. Shoving a bag in a cup just doesn't cut it
Poof! I can make a ritual out of anything. I learnt the attitude from two collies, who like things done in the way they like things done on all occasions they're done.

Mind, I wouldn't go the whole Japan. Doesn't the tea get cold as you muck about with the implements whilst thinking deep thoughts about the nature of summick or other? :-)

Cugel, sticking to the coffee anyway, where the machine performs 90% of the ceremony.
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
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Cugel
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Re: UK energy

Post by Cugel »

Pendodave wrote: 6 Dec 2022, 9:13am The huge and fascinating range of loose leaf tea just isn't available in a bag.
Just have a teapot that matches your consumption to avoid waste.
One with a removable basket facilitates leaf disposal.
There are few enough pleasures in life. Proper tea is an easy, cheap and non-dangerous one!
Well .... I confess to having a tea infuser (a small metal cage with teeny holes/a mesh, on a chain) into which goes the more exotic tea leaves, at odd times when there's danger of a coffee-jag coming on.

This is a teabag of a reusable kind, I suppose. To enable the group drinkers to all have different teas would require several infusers. Can you imagine the confusion of the infusion when one forgets which cage held what tea!? Still, the same happens with tea bags, eh?

**************
As to proper tea only coming from a teapot. Pshaw! SO many times I've been subject to builder's tea and worse from a blackened teapot holding blackened tea that's been sitting in there on its mugglies for ages & ages. Tea syrup comes out! The gran or grandad that poured your cup of the filthy stuff, being a teapot martinet, will often take offense if you don't gulp the lot down with a broad smile of appreciation.

A teapot also risks a gob full of mugglies as you drain the cup, when especially thirsty. I've never acquired a taste for soggy tea leaves, even if the tea was the best white China or a nice Lapsang Souchong.

Cugel, probably over-sensitive i' the taste buds.
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
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Cugel
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Re: UK energy

Post by Cugel »

roubaixtuesday wrote: 6 Dec 2022, 9:19am
al_yrpal wrote: 6 Dec 2022, 8:53am The EU tried to ban coffee machines that kept things hot as not being green.
If only the production of hot air about EU regulations could be ceased, imagine the savings!

Shocking though, that regulations give consumers guarantees on the efficiency of appliances, and suppliers a level playing field to prevent a race to the bottom on efficiency. And this helping to keep the lights on and reduce dependence on Russian gas too! Awful.
Them EUers just want to constrain our many freedumbs to self-harm, not to mention to harm others! The dastards! Don't they realise how important it is to so many of the teeny Ingurlanders to be allowed full self-indulgence, self-neglect, self-everything and down the banks with any softies in the way! It's a fundamental right of all right-thinking right wings, who should never be nannied or stopped from playing chicken in every way imaginable (and several not imaginable).

Cugel, just off to my self-immolation class (non-altruistic school).
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
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