I’ve never been a fan of hot tea. In fact I downright disliked it.
The only person I remember drinking hot tea when I was a girl was Granny’s Aunt Pearl. She moved off up north for much of her life, but in her later years she come home. She was really good to our family and really liked each of us.
I thought Aunt Pearl was fancy. She was always dressed up with lots of jewelry. I remember for a while she had a gentleman friend. He dressed spiffy and wore a nice fedora hat.
Aunt Pearl would sit at Granny Gazzie’s kitchen table with a lovely saucer and tea cup and drink her tea. She saucered and blowed it before drinking when it was really hot.
Pap and Granny never drank hot tea, but Miss Cindy went with a cup in her hand all the time.
Matt, Corie, and Katie love it too. When I have a cold or am feeling puny they all try to get me to drink hot tea.
I usually comply with their doctoring but have to choke it down as fast as I can. I’ve always told them it tastes like a barn stall 🙂
During my recent Nature Studies class at the folk school I discovered something that stopped my quarreling about hot tea.
One day while we were out foraging Kayla the class assistant grabbed some mint. Once we returned to the studio she made tea for everyone. I explained I didn’t really care for hot tea, but the day was so wonderful and the class going so well that in the moment I felt like I should at least drink a little sup.
I’m so glad I did!
It was good! No weird barn stall taste, no desire to gag.
I shared what I’ve told you with Kayla. She said “Do they sweeten the tea they make you?” I told her they always use honey to encourage me to drink it. Kayla said “That’s what you don’t like, the aftertaste of the hot honey.”
The next day we went to the folk school garden and Kayla grabbed a handful of lemon balm. She said “Tipper let’s see if you like this too.”
I did! Not as good as the mint, but there was no barn stall taste.
My favorite tea of the week was foraged from one of the trails behind Mill House. We gathered birch twigs, spice bush twigs, and a few leaves of wild ginger (it was mostly spice bush twigs).
Ila made the tea and then stored it in the refrigerator until we were ready to have our big meal.
Just before serving she sweetened it with a little sugar water. It was delicious!
At the first taste I was immediately back in Mamaw’s kitchen eating at the table while she worked at the sink.
Now I’m wondering if Mamaw used spice bush twigs to make her tea. Or it might be that whatever tea she bought was different than what Granny bought to make sweet tea when I was a girl.
Last night’s video: Aunt Arie 10.
Tipper
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Praying for Papaw Tony.
I never had a desire to drink anything hot except for a cup of either Folgers or Maxwell house original blend of grocery store coffee when eating my breakfast. I can take it or leave coffee with out any problem. I do like to drink cold ice water that came from my house faucet (not bought plastic bottles,) slightly sweetened ice tea, and the colder the better frost riptide rush Gatorade. I do like to drink a Coke Cola, Pepsi, RC or Mountain Dew every now and then. I fell in love with that flavor of Gatorade after working in 95 degree heat for 8-9 hours a day year round and having salt rings from sweat on the front of my tee shirt. I would buy and drink an 20 oz Gatorade (wishing it was bigger) out of a vending machine that was cold enough to almost have mushy ice in before leaving for home most days. I would drink cold water during the working hours. My coworker and I would run two large drum fans on us year round with snow on the ground about 15-20 feet away from us on the other side of the outside wall.
Maybe try chia tea using two tea bags let it settle then add some sugar and nutmeg cinnamon and a little heavy cream or 1/2 1/2x it’s wonderful .
Oh, my. I so love THE BLIND PIG AND THE ACORN! Absolutely refreshing and charming and REAL – like a stop-off at a precious relative’s place on Christmas Eve. Music and Hugs, Excellent Scents and Amazing Food. Blessings to you, yours and ALL of your sweet subscribers.
When I was in my 20s, I went back to college. I worked nights and commuted to UNC from Raleigh daily. My night job was a computer room night operations manager. I started drinking coffee for the caffeine stimulation. Over the next 5-6 years I drank more and more coffee then developed a ‘sour’ stomach and eventually peptic ulcers. A doctor suggested I stop drinking coffee. I followed his advice, but I substituted hot tea for it. My ulcers and sour stomach disappeared. I’ve been drinking hot tea since.
A co-worker from Malaysia brought me a couple pounds of Boh Tea which is a common brand used in that country. It remains the best tea I’ve ever tried. I buy Typhoo (black) tea bags these days. I have 3 to 5 cups a day. I do not use honey to sweeten my tea. I use Splenda these days but used sugar before. I also use milk – not cream – in my tea.
I’ve lost my taste for coffee almost altogether. In ’91 I spend most of the year working in Madrid, Spain. Coffee there is so much better than any coffee I’ve ever had in the States (including Starbucks) that it should be called by a different name. I drank coffee in Spain and really liked it. I used milk and a tiny bit of sugar. They have an espresso that is served in a tiny demitasse cup that they call a cortado. A cup of that after lunch would keep me wired until nearly midnight.
Tea is a passion of mine and I’ve learned a lot about it. I’m guessing it’s actually real tea (black tea) made from the tea plant, Camellia Sinensis that you don’t care for when it’s hot, because honey tastes like honey, period. Everything else is a tisane, but colloquially people call it herbal tea. For example, your mint tea, if it was just mint leaves and water, is a tisane. If I say I want decaf tea, inevitably someone buys herbal, not black, green or white tea processed to remove as much caffeine as possible but still taste like tea, which is not what I want. See, there’s lots of confusion.
There are many ways to process tea leaves to achieve different flavors, and some of them do taste grassy or like hay! Some taste fishy even! The elevation the plants are grown at and the soil makes a difference as well. Not oversteeping is extremely important too. There are many flavorings added to make a particular blend like bergamot for Earl Grey, cherry for Monk’s blend, or wood fired for russian caravan, and of course spices, leaves or flowers – think Jasmine green. Some things taste good to us cold, but not hot and vice versa. I drink both hot and iced tea. Iced is always sweetened a little, but some of my hot teas I don’t like it that way. Many herbals taste nasty, but there’s some therapeutic value so I have to doctor it with something to drink it (like chamomile- I buy the kind with vanilla and other herbals and am careful how long I steep it). The world of tea is enormous and storied and whether you ever like hot black tea or not, Ithink you’d enjoy learning more and even attending a tea tasting if you ever get the chance. (If you like sweet spices, Constant Comment by Bigelow is my favorite. 8 oz cup, 194° steep about 3 min with a little sugar or sweet and low).
Fascinating info, Aaran! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.
Tipper, I’m glad you shared about why you didn’t like hot tea. I can drink it but never was a fan of it. I also sweetened mine with honey and it always had an aftertaste. Now knowing this information, I think I will try drinking hot tea again. Thanks so much!
I like hot tea with sugar. I’ve tried honey but prefer it with sugar. Now I’m drinking Twining Tea. Orange Peach. They’ve been in business for over 300 years, so they really know their tea!
Hot tea was a part of my growing up. Aunt Gene would make a regular black tea with sugar and a splash of milk. It was always good. If I have a cold I’ll make hot black tea but without the milk because the milk makes more congestion for me.
Hot tea is what you need to drink on those late autumn/early spring days when it’s not quite freezing, but the chill still cuts through you anyway, because the days can get really damp and blustery. It works for me. Anyhow, you can make a safe “tisane” (“tee-zon,” a plant-infused hot drink) from any part of any plant that isn’t toxic, and many people do. Whether it’s good for what ails you is up to you and how you feel afterwards, I suppose.
I did use to get a taste of keen hickory tea from time to time. That’s been a long time and most of the scars on my legs aren’t noticeable most of the time.
Ammons, hickory tea was the only hot tea I ever had when growing up. At least the boys could hide the whelps by wearing pants- most often patched knee dungarees now called blue jeans by the educated folks. The girls wore dresses and couldn’t hide theirs. A dose of hickory tee cured many childhood behavioral problems. I think many of today’s children wouldn’t do or act like many of them do if they had been given a dose of hickory tea every now and then by their parents.
I love hot tea; I like to try all flavors. The Yogi brand is my favorite.
Barn stall taste huh? I used to say Brussels sprouts taste like dirty pond water! I love them now. I especially go gif the baby ones; like most vegetables- the young smaller ones taste best.
Enjoy the weekend! It’s hot here in the SC Midlands.
Good for you Tipper – giving tea another try and finding out it was the honey that was tasting like ‘a barn stall’ and not the actual tea! 🙂 I grew up with both coffee and tea drinkers – starting the day off with coffee, then the noon meal onwards they reverted to tea – some added a sweetener and some also added milk or cream to both the coffee and tea. My mama was like Miss Cindy…always had a ‘cuppa’ in her hand and she didn’t care if it was hot, warm or had gone cold. I prefer herb teas these days – no caffeine.
I don’t drink anything hot except coffee. I don’t drink tea at all unless you count the sugar free Lipton green tea in bottles I might drink if I have to be outside on a really hot day (the tea is mostly for Missy when she comes to see me).
I don’t drink anything with ice, in fact I took the icemaker out of my refrigerator to make room for other stuff. I don’t drink soft drinks at all. I don’t drink water either unless it is a sup to wash down my pills. I do drink fruit and vegetable juices. I do eat watermelon, grapes and oranges, mainly for the water content.
By now you probably think I’m crazy, which I readily admit. But, you won’t see me out with a phone in one hand and a water bottle in the other, unable to strike a lick at a snake if I need to.
Tipper, I agree with you I have never been a fan of hot tea. I used to think it had something to do with having to only have toast and tea when I was sick as a child. When I have a cold I can sip lemon ginger tea. I do like iced tea though.
I had to give up caffeine a few years ago, but I still have a cup of decaf coffee each morning. I also still enjoy decaf black, green, and herbal tea—especially if I am feeling a little under the weather—and I always use honey. It does take a little getting used to honey instead of sugar. It definitely tastes different. I use it to sweeten cold drinks like lemonade and iced tea too. I just melt the honey in a little warm water to get it to dissolve. We are small beekeepers—mostly because I love honey in everything. Hubby does it mostly because they fascinate him. He spends lots of time watching them fly in with different colors of pollen on their feet, hatching in the afternoons, and fighting off a wasp or yellow jacket trying to get in. Last year, we got honey three times and all three tasted completely different…according to where the bees are getting nectar. My favorite is a very dark amber honey. Most people tend to favor the light colors/flavors. I am glad you found a way to enjoy your hot tea, Miss Tipper. We all like different things.
My wife drinks hot tea when she feels poorly. I’ve never cared for it at any time. When we lived in Arizona I drank about two gallons of slightly sweetened iced tea per day in the Summer. (Sun tea) Now I get about 4-5 oz of juice at breakfast to wash down my meds and sometime later in the day a glass of milk with a meal or snack. The rest of the day it’s ice water – 8-10 glasses in Winter and 12 -16 glasses in Summer. If we go out to eat the waitress will refill my glass at least twice while we’re waiting for our food.
Sounds like you are part sponge!
I am not a fan of hot tea or cold coffee. I would definitely try foraged tea though.
Our temp hit 99 yesterday. We still put up corn. Time, tide and corn wait for no man.
I’m sure glad you discovered the reason your tea tasted like a barn stall. Who would have thought it was the honey aftertaste. Not me, that’s for sure!
Tipper, your share this morning immediately took me back to my dear Bobby who ALWAYS wore his Fedora hat and he was coffee to saucer blowing kind of guy. He drank coffee I believe and I’d watch him and mommy BOTH pour and blow from cup to saucer for many years. Aunt Gracie lived to be over a hundred. She only ate burnt toast and coffee and when she got done, she’d brush those toast crumbs with her hand right onto the floor like nobody noticed and had to clean it up. Lol She declared her impending death for years as she laid in bed and declared someone wait on her hand and foot… ALL her terribly long life. She was a big pourer and blower too. Once the dish pan disappeared and was located when Gracie put her high heel through the passenger floor board of the car into her missing dish pan her husband used to cover up the hole in the old Ford Falcon and claimed he knew nothing about. Lol I like hot tea with lots of evaporated milk and sugar, but I love hot dark coffee made the same much more. I like eating and drinking like our people brought here PROUDLY from across the pond and intend to keep up as many traditions as I can. Honey doesn’t belong in good tea or coffee especially when it’s hot. It changes the taste very much. When I make stir fry, honey goes in last as it’s coming together to cool to help with the hot honey changing taste. Just call be turbinado sucre woman… I ain’t eating that white stuff if I can help it and I also purchase EUROPEAN flour (Egyptian or Turkish is fine) so I don’t break out in blisters and can breathe. I’d love to hit the spice bush with you and enjoy a cup of foraged tea as we hoist our cups and declare “cheers to you, dear lady!” And here’s the hoist of my cup of cream with a bit of coffee saying “cheers to each one of you that makes this blog so dang interesting and enjoyable every day!”
Sadie I remember some of our junkyard cars having patched up rusted out floorboards. It was a lesson in faith to drive some of them out of the driveway. Your mentioned of Ford Falcon brings back memories of my Granddaddy’s 62 Ford Falcon. I would drive him around on these country back roads in it BEFORE I got my license and then drove it to get my license just as soon as I turned 15 years old. Three on the tree manual transmission and a rubber band hp size 6 cylinder engine.
I love reading these. I’m always too chicken to forage…I’m afraid I’ll get it wrong and poison us all. I think my dad’s mom knew how to forage. I loved eating at her house. I wish I’d been old enough to have been able to pick her brain about such things before she passed. Thanks for sharing. Have a great weekend! Jane in SC❤️
Good for you – in two senses! I am curious about whether in the tea-making any “green” taste came through. Seems to me too much twigs and/or leaves, or too hot a temperature or too long a steeping would make a “green” taste? And I’m guessing it would also vary by what plant(s) is or are being used? Matt’s pine needle, or hemlock needle, comes to mind as two that would really be strong. I guess maybe the only sure way to satisfy oneself would be to experiment.
My parents never drank tea when I was growing up in Ohio. They said when they lived in Kentucky sometimes they would make Sassafras Tea. My Uncle Ross even brewed up some and gave me a sip when I was a baby to see if it would help my colic. It didn’t, I cried three months. I asked my mother how it was made and she said you had to find a sassafras tree, did up some roots, and boil them in water. I have never liked tea. I’ve always said that it tastes like weed juice. I think I will stick to black hot coffee.
I am so glad the lady figured out it was the hot honey that ruined the taste of tea for you…I do not know what spice bush is so I will have to investigate that and see if we have it in Oklahoma (maybe we do but it might be known in these parts as something else), in another blog or in a video you mentioned maybe tea isn’t as good as they use to make–well I do know that is true, but what my grandma and mom used for making iced tea was loose leaf tea (lipton) they never used tea bags. At some point in my adult life I could not find loose leaf tea so had to buy lipton tea bags and way back years ago it was as good as loose leaf but then overtime the starting putting just basically tea dust instead of leaves in the bags which was not as good and though I got use to the weakened tea flavor the company made a change in their bags and I could taste the bags over the tea (I never boil tea, just get water almost boiling then add tea to steep for about 15 minutes so the tea bag taste was not caused by boiling). I once again searched for loose leaf tea and found it bought it and was happy for several years, then lipton loose leaf tea (lipton was only loose leaf that was good) was scarce again so finally internet was used to find and try several different companies and I finally found one that was satisfactory–then came the tea shortage and the increase in price–loose leaf tea especially lipton is outrageously high now, out of my price range. I have found a brand or two online I can tolerate and after trying some brands of tea bags that is good because it is not complete tea dust but they are only good if I take it out of the bag put in tea strainer with a little loose leaf and that has been my concoction for a few years now….I don’t know anyone as picky as me when it comes to tea but to achieve a beloved childhood taste memory I will go to great lengths to relive drinking my mom and grandma’s tea. (another thing my brother and I want is our tea still warm when we pour it over ice, we do not want cold tea poured over ice lol…we are both adament about that–yes we are picky when it comes to tea so I fully understood your dislike for tea but so happy you now know it was the using honey as sweetener for your various hot teas that caused the disgusting taste you would experience…..a whole new world is opened up to you now and you can explore all the options available when it comes to hot teas lol have a great weekend
I’m so glad you found out why you didn’t like hot tea! It sounds like the class enriched your life in more ways than one. What a blessing. My mother-in-law in staying with us this weekend. Her health is very poor and I sadly don’t think she is long for this world. We are having a wonderful time and soaking up the visit. The birds are singing very loudly this morning and sound so cheerful. This week we got 3.5” of rain and a cold front followed it, so we are unseasonably cool here right now. The highs are only in the low 70s with no humidity. We are enjoying that while it lasts. We know it will again be sticky and hot before we know it. Have a blessed weekend, everyone!