On 18 Feb 2005 09:19:11 -0800, elgoog wrote:

> Yes, I mean walking in to a brick-and-mortar establishment. You know
> the real, physical world.

Well, I'm a local boy who buys from one local shop. So my experience
is limited.

Personally, if they won't let me sniff the tea, I'm not interested. My
nose can tell the difference between a stale tea and a fresh one of
the same time - the latter just smells better.

I'm just talking about a whiff of the aroma from the tin. But then, my
shop sells all stuff loose and bags it when you buy it.
--
Derek

Sometimes the end doesn't justify the jeans.

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 12:18:13 -0600, Bluesea wrote:

> "Derek" > wrote in message ...
>>
>> The most accurate answer to your question is to use a microwavable
>> thermometer. You can insert it in the water and watch to see when the
>> water has gotten hot.
>>
>> http://www.thermoworks.com/products/...microwave.html
>
> So, Derek...remember our discussion about traveling? What about getting an
> IngenuiTea like you were thinking or that travel set I found or something
> and sticking this thermometer into the water at those motels that have a
> microwave available to the guests?

I think that'd work.

> Would still need a heating coil for those places that don't have a
> microwave, though.

Which would be 100% of the hotels I've been in over the last 5 years.
The last hotel I was in that had a microwave available to the guests
was a SleepInn in Beckley, WV - there was one in the lobby/snack area.

All the rest have been those towering, downtown monstrosities that are
so often frequented by professional conferences. Coffee pots in the
rooms, but no microwaves. Of course, if I wanted to pay more for the
room....

--
Derek

If I'm "crippled by a lack of ethics", can I draw disability?

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 21:45:14 GMT, Bluesea wrote:

> "Eric Jorgensen" > wrote in message
> news:20050218142200.443847ed@wafer...
>> On 18 Feb 2005 13:19:37 -0800
>> "elgoog" > wrote:
>>
>>> Ever get into trouble traveling with tea? I used to have problems
>>> carrying coffee. The dogs are trained to respond to coffee because
>>> smugglers hid drugs inside the coffee in an attempt to fool the dogs.
>>
>> I hear tell my supervisor once got hassled at the airport with a
> ziplock
>> baggie full of yerba mate.
>
> I've never seen yerba mate. Does it look very much like oregano?
>
>> There's a noted case of a tourist being asked to transfer his "Gunpowder
>> Tea" out of it's labeled packaging for fear it might unsettle other
>> passengers.
>
> Oh, good grief. I comprehend the logic, but some people (other passengers)
> really need to find something better to do with their nosiness. I mean, it
> wasn't as though "GUNPOWDER" was in large letters, was it?

Wouldn't it be better if it was in large letters? I mean, what kind of
idiot terrorist would try to board a plane with a can boldly labeled
"Gunpowder" or a box labeled "Dynamite"???
--
Derek

"It's not easy being green, but it's really easy being on Star Trek."
-- Bobbi Sue Luther, on her role as an Orion slave girl for Star Trek:
Enterprise

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 18:25:23 GMT, Bluesea wrote:

> "Derek" > wrote in message ...
>> On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 17:53:17 -0600, Bluesea wrote:
>>
>>> "Derek" > wrote in message
> ...
>>>> On 17 Feb 2005 14:44:55 -0800, elgoog wrote:
>>>>
>>>> There is an island of opportunity in the middle of every difficulty.
>>>> Miss that, though, and you're pretty much doomed.
>>>
>>> From where do you get these? They're really funny, y'know.
>>
>> I cannot tell a lie. So I'm not going to tell you anything.
>>
>> But you might want to check out www.despair.com.
>
> Well, what do you know. I found the line that another guy uses in his sig
> about never underestimating the power of stupid people in large groups. I
> always wondered about that. His sig doesn't change, however, and yours does.

Yes. That's a service I provide to the other participants in the
newsgroups in which I post.

I figure, it's almost always the same people and very few new people
join these days. So why make everyone read the same .sig until it gets
repetitive?


>> A few harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of
>> destruction.
>
> That's teamwork, eh?

Yeah. It's dangerous stuff in the wrong hands.
--
Derek

"Marriage is a great institution if you get it right." -- Donald Trump

"Derek" > wrote in message ...
> On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 21:45:14 GMT, Bluesea wrote:
>
> > "Eric Jorgensen" > wrote in message
> > news:20050218142200.443847ed@wafer...
> >> On 18 Feb 2005 13:19:37 -0800
> >> "elgoog" > wrote:
> >>
> >>> Ever get into trouble traveling with tea? I used to have problems
> >>> carrying coffee. The dogs are trained to respond to coffee because
> >>> smugglers hid drugs inside the coffee in an attempt to fool the dogs.
> >>
> >> There's a noted case of a tourist being asked to transfer his
"Gunpowder
> >> Tea" out of it's labeled packaging for fear it might unsettle other
> >> passengers.
> >
> > Oh, good grief. I comprehend the logic, but some people (other
passengers)
> > really need to find something better to do with their nosiness. I mean,
it
> > wasn't as though "GUNPOWDER" was in large letters, was it?
>
> Wouldn't it be better if it was in large letters? I mean, what kind of
> idiot terrorist would try to board a plane with a can boldly labeled
> "Gunpowder" or a box labeled "Dynamite"???

Yeah. And, just think what the other passengers might do if the tea was
sprinkled in a line down the aisle like from the johns and the guy lit the
end of it.

--
~~Bluesea~~
Spam is great in musubi but not in email.
Please take out the trash before sending a direct reply.

"Derek" > wrote in message ...
> On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 18:25:23 GMT, Bluesea wrote:
>
> > "Derek" > wrote in message
...
> >> On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 17:53:17 -0600, Bluesea wrote:
> >>
> >>> "Derek" > wrote in message
> > ...
> >>>> On 17 Feb 2005 14:44:55 -0800, elgoog wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> There is an island of opportunity in the middle of every difficulty.
> >>>> Miss that, though, and you're pretty much doomed.
> >>>
> >>> From where do you get these? They're really funny, y'know.
> >>
> >> I cannot tell a lie. So I'm not going to tell you anything.
> >>
> >> But you might want to check out www.despair.com.
> >
> > Well, what do you know. I found the line that another guy uses in his
sig
> > about never underestimating the power of stupid people in large groups.
I
> > always wondered about that. His sig doesn't change, however, and yours
does.
>
> Yes. That's a service I provide to the other participants in the
> newsgroups in which I post.

LOL. Thank you. I appreciate it .

> I figure, it's almost always the same people and very few new people
> join these days. So why make everyone read the same .sig until it gets
> repetitive?

Um...I dunno. Although, in self-defense, it took the members of one group a
year and a half before someone asked what's musubi and in another group in
which I participated since '01, it was only late last year that someone said
anything.

(In case anybody's reading this who doesn't know about spam musubi:

http://www.hawaii.edu/recipes/misc/spam.html.)

> >> A few harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of
> >> destruction.
> >
> > That's teamwork, eh?
>
> Yeah. It's dangerous stuff in the wrong hands.

LOL!

> "Marriage is a great institution if you get it right." -- Donald Trump

Whoa. How would he know? Didn't he get married, again, not all that long
ago?

--
~~Bluesea~~
Spam is great in musubi but not in email.
Please take out the trash before sending a direct reply.

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 17:38:43 -0600, Bluesea wrote:

> "Derek" > wrote in message ...

[snip]

>> "Marriage is a great institution if you get it right." -- Donald Trump
>
> Whoa. How would he know? Didn't he get married, again, not all that long
> ago?

I also like quotes with hidden irony.

--
Derek

"Life is anything that dies when you stomp on it. -- Dave Barry

Try ethnic stores Arabic,Indian,Asian etc. You'll find plenty of
commericial teas at penny/gram. The expensive ones are maybe twice
that. There is a better chance of finding teas in tins. If you have
access to a Chinatown knock yourself out. Psst the best Ceylon teas
are in Arabic stores. If nothing else you'll get to discover the tea
the rest of the world drinks. Try the discount chains such as TJMAX
and CostPlus. If you live in a large metro area you should be able to
find a tea shoppe. Most will have some sample packs to purchase so you
can try first. If you're really lucky my local tea shoppe serves what
it sells but since I can do better making a cup I always buy before I
try and sometimes I'm even disappointed. He currently doesn't like
some of his Indian teas and is going to replace them. I've been
foraging at bricks and mortars for decades and you can always expect
the unexpected.

Jim

elgoog wrote:
> <<You mean when you walk in to buy or ordering from them?>>
>
> Yes, I mean walking in to a brick-and-mortar establishment. You know
> the real, physical world. I find so much information online about
> Internet tea stores and reviews of teas sold online. I am left
> wondering, what about finding good loose leaf tea in stores. One of
the
> things I enjoyed about coffee was going to the stores and picking out
> the beans. I want to know about tea, find tea stores and be able to
> experience that same sense of knowing what I am looking for and
> predicting and recognizing quality.
>
> I realize that my geen tea sampler from Adagio contains teas that
have
> been reviewed from horrid to average. The horrid one is, well horrid.
> Still, the average tea is the best I have ever tasted. I don't mean
to
> knock Adagio, it just happens their best teas aren't in the sampler I
> bought.

I've never had a problem with a commercial tea past expiry. The expiry
dates on tea packaging essentially has no meaning if the packaging is
still intact and shelved in modern store. Teas in tins and nitrogen
vacuum pack are the best with foil a close second. Teas in paper
cartons with just cellophane wrapping might be suspect regardless of
expiry even though I've never had a problem perse. I buy tins this way
expecting them to be less than retail in price. The problem with tea
storage begins after the package is opened. There is no guarantee a
three month old flush stored in a container and repeatedly exposed to
the elements is any fresher than a commercial tea past expiry. I just
bought a Japanese vacuum tin with a 99 date which means either packed
for expired. The tea taste fine to me. Does it taste the same as the
tea it was packed? Who knows. But it is easy to A/B other teas past
expiry with their retail version and I've never seen a difference in
taste.

Jim

Bluesea wrote:
> One thing that I look for is the expiration date on the boxed teas.
In one
> store, *every* box I checked was expired several months to over a
year. I
> walked out never even looking at their loose tea figuring that if
they
> weren't serious enough about tea on the whole to keep their boxed
items
> reasonably current, there wasn't any sense in my expecting their
loose teas
> to be fresh.

"elgoog" > wrote ...
> Ever get into trouble traveling with tea? I used to have problems
> carrying coffee. The dogs are trained to respond to coffee because
> smugglers hid drugs inside the coffee in an attempt to fool the dogs.

I stopped using Ziploc bags to bring tea to restaurants, after getting
suspicious looks. I now use resealable sample bags from tea vendors.

To be honest, I might check expiration dates out of habit as I'm one of
those who read labels almost compulsively. In the store that I mentioned,
the small selection (a narrow shelf) of boxes were paper and cellophane,
contained teabags, and the store's main business is coffee and tobacco. I
asked the clerks if they knew anything about the teas and they looked at
each other and replied, "no." I'd bet that the only flush they knew was of
the toilet kind. Hence, my decision to walk out and forego looking at the
loose teas which were in glass apothecary-type jars.

--
~~Bluesea~~
Spam is great in musubi but not in email.
Please take out the trash before sending a direct reply.

"Space Cowboy" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> I've never had a problem with a commercial tea past expiry. The expiry
> dates on tea packaging essentially has no meaning if the packaging is
> still intact and shelved in modern store. Teas in tins and nitrogen
> vacuum pack are the best with foil a close second. Teas in paper
> cartons with just cellophane wrapping might be suspect regardless of
> expiry even though I've never had a problem perse. I buy tins this way
> expecting them to be less than retail in price. The problem with tea
> storage begins after the package is opened. There is no guarantee a
> three month old flush stored in a container and repeatedly exposed to
> the elements is any fresher than a commercial tea past expiry. I just
> bought a Japanese vacuum tin with a 99 date which means either packed
> for expired. The tea taste fine to me. Does it taste the same as the
> tea it was packed? Who knows. But it is easy to A/B other teas past
> expiry with their retail version and I've never seen a difference in
> taste.
>
> Jim
>
> Bluesea wrote:
> > One thing that I look for is the expiration date on the boxed teas.
> In one
> > store, *every* box I checked was expired several months to over a
> year. I
> > walked out never even looking at their loose tea figuring that if
> they
> > weren't serious enough about tea on the whole to keep their boxed
> items
> > reasonably current, there wasn't any sense in my expecting their
> loose teas
> > to be fresh.

"Bluesea" > writes:

> "Lewis Perin" > wrote in message
> news
> >
> > /Lew, on his way to Calcutta and Darjeeling
>
> For real?

We got into Calcutta this morning. I don't know how often I'll be
able to check the Net over here, though.

> Have a good trip!

Thanks.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

CostPlus in their early days sold loose teas out of glass jars.
Normally there would be somebody in front of me ordering 1oz lots from
every tea on the shelf. I'd come back hours later and the lids and
jars were still seperated on the shelves. The lids simply got paired
up with the nearest jar. There is no guarantee a website handles it's
tea any differently.

Jim

Bluesea wrote:
> To be honest, I might check expiration dates out of habit as I'm one
of
> those who read labels almost compulsively. In the store that I
mentioned,
> the small selection (a narrow shelf) of boxes were paper and
cellophane,
> contained teabags, and the store's main business is coffee and
tobacco. I
> asked the clerks if they knew anything about the teas and they looked
at
> each other and replied, "no." I'd bet that the only flush they knew
was of
> the toilet kind. Hence, my decision to walk out and forego looking at
the
> loose teas which were in glass apothecary-type jars.
>
> --
> ~~Bluesea~~

"Space Cowboy" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> CostPlus in their early days sold loose teas out of glass jars.
> Normally there would be somebody in front of me ordering 1oz lots from
> every tea on the shelf. I'd come back hours later and the lids and
> jars were still seperated on the shelves. The lids simply got paired
> up with the nearest jar.



>There is no guarantee a website handles it's
> tea any differently.

Unless you're able to visit in person or ask and they're honest in
answering.

--
~~Bluesea~~
Spam is great in musubi but not in email.
Please take out the trash before sending a direct reply.

On 21 Feb 2005 09:08:04 -0800, Space Cowboy wrote:

> CostPlus in their early days sold loose teas out of glass jars.
> Normally there would be somebody in front of me ordering 1oz lots from
> every tea on the shelf. I'd come back hours later and the lids and
> jars were still seperated on the shelves. The lids simply got paired
> up with the nearest jar. There is no guarantee a website handles it's
> tea any differently.

That's a really good point, Jim.

I'd trust my local shop's online offerings, but that's because I've
watched how they care for their teas. I'd have no problem ordering
online from them if I moved because I know the tea'd be fresh.

The problem I've always had with prepackaged tins is, no matter how
pretty the tin, I have no idea how much dust they had to wipe away
before shipping it to me.

It's like the joke - on the Internet, nobody knows if you're a dog.
Also on the Internet, nobody knows if you neglect your teas.

--
Derek

For every winner, there are dozens of losers. Odds are you're one of
them.

On 21 Feb 2005 09:08:04 -0800, Space Cowboy wrote:

> CostPlus in their early days sold loose teas out of glass jars.
> Normally there would be somebody in front of me ordering 1oz lots from
> every tea on the shelf. I'd come back hours later and the lids and
> jars were still seperated on the shelves. The lids simply got paired
> up with the nearest jar. There is no guarantee a website handles it's
> tea any differently.

That's a really good point, Jim.

I'd trust my local shop's online offerings, but that's because I've
watched how they care for their teas. I'd have no problem ordering
online from them if I moved because I know the tea'd be fresh.

The problem I've always had with prepackaged tins is, no matter how
pretty the tin, I have no idea how much dust they had to wipe away
before shipping it to me.

It's like the joke - on the Internet, nobody knows if you're a dog.
Also on the Internet, nobody knows if you neglect your teas.

--
Derek

For every winner, there are dozens of losers. Odds are you're one of
them.