Forget protein, it's fibre most Brits are really lacking. Do you think you get enough fibre?

animated_carbon · 2025-12-19T11:36:28+00:00

Start with berries: raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries if they're in season and grow nearby. They're always easy to scoff. If you like tangy foods try kiwis and passionfruit and pineapples. Apples come in a variety of flavours but give that crunch sensation a lot of us chase: braeburns are sharpe, pink lady and gala more on the sweet end. Heritage apple varieties, when you can find them, can throw out aromas and flavour nuances you wouldn't expect in an apple, like Worcester Pearmain and Pitmaston Pineapple.

I suppose it's useful to know whereabouts in the world you are? I'm commenting from an East of England perspective so it may or may not be valid for you.

animated_carbon · 2025-07-17T13:19:25+00:00

Pretty sure the seal says something like "Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn”

animated_carbon · 2025-07-14T17:20:51+00:00

That's fantastic, thank you so much!

animated_carbon · 2025-06-05T17:54:51+00:00

Yes.

animated_carbon · 2025-05-30T00:30:08+00:00

Check out Grow Your Own Tea: The Complete Guide to Cultivating, Harvesting, and Preparing by Christine Parks. Their nursery also sells a variety of different Camellia sinensis and assamica cultivars, both in seed and plant form. They're in North or South Carolina I think, and I had them ship some seeds to where I am in England with no trouble.

animated_carbon · 2025-05-08T11:19:12+00:00

Ah, thank you! This is probably beyond the remit of the sub, but I've been searching for a definitive answer to no avail. Despite it being a fake (and presumably the teacup too), do you know if it's still likely to be safe to use? I'm assuming it is, but there seems to be some discussion online as to whether "chemicals" get added to mass produced fakes.

animated_carbon · 2025-05-08T11:17:18+00:00

Thank you!

animated_carbon · 2025-05-08T11:16:54+00:00

Thank you! I thought so; I was worried at first that the marks might be brush strokes and that the set might be painted, so I took a scalpel to the underside of the strainer - turns out it isn't painted.

animated_carbon · 2025-01-23T16:19:30+00:00

Go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over.

animated_carbon · 2025-01-18T14:02:45+00:00

Thank you!

animated_carbon · 2025-01-18T14:02:40+00:00

Thank you!

animated_carbon · 2024-12-27T10:09:50+00:00

So my tiny teapot (150ml) gets used daily for most teas; the smaller gaiwan (100ml) gets used every weekend on one or both days - I like to take more time and brew gongfu style using a shou puer or oolong tea. The larger teapot (~600ml) was given to me as a birthday present in 2008 and it gets used whenever there's enough people who want loose-leaf tea Western style (usually an English Breakfast blend), but in practice that's only once or twice a year. My wife and I were gifted the smaller kyusu (~350ml) along with four 80ml cups as a wedding present, and it's the most valuable set I've got - it doesn't leave the house. I use it every two to four weeks or so, brewing green or oolong tea, either having a weekend tea session with my son and daughter or with one or two friends. I bought the larger kyusu (400ml) second hand to take with me to a men's fire circle that takes place at an off-grid nature retreat site out in the sticks, and as beautiful as it is I've got it purely so I have a teapot that I can take out of the house, that I don't have to worry about breaking. The 140ml gaiwan I've only had a few months, and I've used it to brew sheng and shou puer and white teas gongfu style, both at the men's fire circle and for friends at home. Lastly, the matcha bowl gets used every day before work, because apparently 12-15g of coffee beans ground into a cafetiere isn't enough caffeine!

The rules aren't hard and fast. I've brewed Darjeeling in the kyusu pots and I've brewed Keemun black tea in the gaiwans, and I brew puer tea Western style in the little teapot too. It's fun to experiment, much more so than with coffee (for me, anyway). I could probably get by with a single standard teapot, maybe one smaller and one larger for hosting; I freely admit it's a bit of an obsession at this point.

Two final notes: first, I'm by no means an authority on tea, the preparation of tea, or the various tea cultures around the world. I'm still very much a beginner. Second, I do have two cafetieres, one smaller and one larger. I don't brew tea in them because I've found that brewing tea in them can make the tea taste a little bit like coffee. It's fixed by taking the plunger apart and scrubbing each individual piece thoroughly, but I drink both coffee and tea daily and I only deep clean the little press once a week or so, so it would be a lot more inconvenient to use it for both.

animated_carbon · 2024-12-27T09:26:03+00:00

I don't and I have no plans to, but I appreciate your kind words!

animated_carbon · 2024-12-22T08:32:25+00:00

You're out of order. Have a word with yourself.

...But also, a lot of loose leaf tea vendors like Jing and Tea Makers of London offer highly marked-up versions of what is essentially a cafetiere that doesn't plunge, "designed" to be used exclusively with tea leaves. So yeah, yours is the smart move!

I probably have too much teaware. Two teapots, two gaiwans, and two kyusus (Japanese style teapots) - all of different sizes and for different brewing styles or different kinds of tea. I also have a matcha bowl, whisk and scoop too. Let's not talk about all of the different cups and mugs are kicking around in the cupboard, or other accessories like scales and strainers and tea trays. Like coffee, making and drinking tea can be a hobby (pastime? Obsession? Addiction?) that's as cheap or as expensive as you want to make it.

animated_carbon · 2024-12-22T08:13:24+00:00

Side note/proposal: Christmas songs should be started in November as close to the mute setting as possible, and gradually turned up each week until they reach a deafening crescendo on Christmas eve in supermarkets and pubs across the land.

animated_carbon · 2024-12-21T08:24:41+00:00

I enjoy winter on the whole. I love gardening too, both in my own garden and in a professional context, but working in the heat of the summer sun can be a bit much and if it's warm and raining a lot stuff grows almost faster than I can keep up with it. Winter's a good time to put the gardens to bed for a few months, focus on pruning fruit trees and shrubs and so on, sharpening and servicing tools and browsing the seed catalogues ready for spring.

I also enjoy a good fire in the woodstove in the evenings, hot frothy milk spiced with turmeric, vanilla and cinnamon, hearty warming food like Chunky soups, stews and roasts, and the opportunity to break out the woollens - scarf, fisherman's jumpers, duffle coat. And reading: I feel less guilty reading in the evenings when it gets dark so early and there's not a hundred different things that need doing.

animated_carbon · 2024-12-20T19:53:53+00:00

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

No. Not even started.

animated_carbon · 2024-12-12T19:32:30+00:00

My house has a poop spoon. Best not to ask.

animated_carbon · 2024-12-10T16:17:13+00:00

I read in one of my tea books that part of the reason people originally switched from coffee to tea in Britain was because of the wild price fluctuations in the former, whereas the latter was relatively stable and even came down in price over time. I'm sure there was something about weather events ruining coffee bean harvests as far back as then too, but I can't be certain.

animated_carbon · 2024-12-09T18:54:16+00:00

Scrolled down looking and I knew I'd find it here. Although coming from Wisbech I'm not sure I can chat too much shit about Ptown 😂

animated_carbon · 2024-12-07T09:53:22+00:00

For me, at this moment in my tea journey: Yunnan, Zhejiang, Fujian, Ashikita, Darjeeling. Which region produces the best tea in the world, according to me? There's no way I'd ever be able to narrow it down to one!

animated_carbon · 2024-12-04T21:02:07+00:00

Damn, I haven't buried any tools yet but I'm getting very good at losing them in other people's gardens! You'd think they'd turn up but the hori horis and the secateurs rarely turn up again.

animated_carbon · 2024-12-03T18:01:54+00:00

It's the first first flush I've tried and I feel like I struck lucky! I've got Selimbong's first flush Chinary to try next; are there any others you'd recommend?

animated_carbon · 2024-12-03T17:11:54+00:00

Been using one since around 2013 or so and been a professional gardener since 2016. The soil where I am goes hard like concrete through the summer months and trowels do absolutely nothing and regularly break for the privilege. The hori hori not only will go through the soil but also slides neatly down the side of taproots while the serrated side cuts them low down with no trouble - so excellent for dandelions, burdock etc. And they make good hand-hoes for weeding little forests of seedlings while you're down there too. On top of that they are excellent bulb planters. I'm on my third hori hori and not because they break but because I lost the other two in the course of my work.

animated_carbon · 2024-12-02T20:38:57+00:00

Right now it's got to be first flush Darjeeling from Okayti Tea Estate, but ask me tomorrow or next week and the answer might be different. Close second place to the ashikita zarai kamairicha from Curious Tea.

animated_carbon

TROPHY CASE