BS: Lapsang Souchong

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Helen
Date: 31 Dec 02 - 07:54 PM

refresh - but please post to part 2 (see blue clicky in my previous post)

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Helen
Date: 03 Jun 02 - 02:07 AM

Lapsang Souchong, Tea Part TWO

This thread is now over 110 posts long, so it's time for a new one. I waited until I could gauge whether there was enough interest to keep going.

Please post to the new thread. I've provided a blicky there to refer back to this one.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 02 Jun 02 - 11:36 PM

G'day Terry,

They aren't that cool by anyone else's standards ... it's Patricia - too long removed from her native Tasmania that is feeling the cold. I walk 6 km home from work, in the centre of Sydney ... and breeze into the house with shirtsleeves rolled up, shirt unbuttoned ... and hanging out of the trousers - and Patricia is sitting by the heater with 2 layers of jumpers! (OK - I do cool down rapidly when I stop walking ...)

Anyway, since I live in Sydney, so you do have 3,999,999 others to confuse with me (but not at the average folk venue). Do you get to any folk music when you make these annual Antipodean arivals? There are a fair few Sydney region 'Catters ... 6 or 7 that come to mind without straining the grey matter.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Terry K
Date: 02 Jun 02 - 03:33 PM

G'day Bob.

I go to Oz every year - how come I didn't bump into you, it's not a very big place is it? I guess you must be in the southern third if the mornings are cooling already!

cheers, Terry

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 02 Jun 02 - 07:54 AM

G'day Terry K,

A good strong brew of "Irish Breakfast Tea" (Twinings is very nice ... but so are a number at half the price!) is just the thing to get the 'significant other' moving these cooling mornings of (very early) Antipodean winter. English Breakfast comes in a close second ... and was favourite morning brew of Patricia's (SO's) grandmother, who lived to be Australia's person, before her death a few days short of 108!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Terry K
Date: 02 Jun 02 - 03:04 AM

As a quintessential Englishman, I am not afflicted by the love of all things Irish that seems to personify the average folkie, but I have recently discovered "Irish Morning" tea and it is just the most refreshing tea I have ever drunk.

It's by Jackson's of Piccadilly (which might invoke images of a quaint tea-shop in London's West End, but is probably produced in a chemical plant in Doncaster) and Tesco have it.

Cheers, Terry

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Haruo
Date: 02 Jun 02 - 02:16 AM

I just saw this thread for the first time, and haven't read it all yet, but must say I do like lapsang souchong. I also like sassafras root tea (though I've been told it's carcinogenic or something), and generally ocha is the only thing I'll drink when eating sushi (which is my absolute favorite thing to eat) though I used to put away a lot of saké in that context.

My maternal grandmother was a dedicated imbiber of Red Rose teabag tea. Wouldn't touch Lipton's (which was most of the tea available in Seattle in those days). I remember when Constant Comment became all the rage. Dates me, enit? When I was in high school I used to drink glass after glass of Lipton's powdered iced tea mix with saccharin added. I have pretty much recovered from that addiction.

My coffee of choice is Bargreen's Kenya Select, or if I'm flush Caffè Appasionato's Celebes varietal. I used to really like Ethiopian Yergacheff, but haven't seen it for awhile.

I also love spruce beer, anent which mayhap I should start a new thread.

Liland

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Deda
Date: 01 Jun 02 - 07:13 PM

I adore teas of all kinds. I'm overly sensitive to caffeine so I have to ration myself, but in my cupboard I have the following: Lapsang suchong, loose leaf; "pitta tea" bags (an ayervedic tea, no caffeine); peppermint, both home-grown loose and in bags; jasmine (caffeinated, quite lovely); KavaKava (helps get sleepy); Sleepytime (chamomile, mostly); licorice tea; ginger tea; generic decaf black tea; "Goodtime" tea, which is a poor imitation of Chai; English Breakfast loose leaf -- and about 20 or 30 others. I got hooked on teas when, after living mostly on coffee and cigarettes throughout my 20s and into my 30s, my gut just gave up and couldn't take the abuse anymore. I love and miss coffee but it goes through me like Drain-O. Teas have wonderful properties and can be very healing; they can stimulate or relax or comfort or enliven, heat one up or cool one down. Thanks, 'catters. What a great group!

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: mcpiper
Date: 01 Jun 02 - 07:26 AM

Ahhh tea. Is there a more perfect drink known to mankind. I never knew how much of a love affair I had with tea until I couldn't get any. I was in Romania a couple of years ago, doing a wee bit of business at a place called Roman up near the Ukraine border. Asked for tea, they didn't have any at the hotel. Tried to get some at a couple of little shop things, no luck. I was gutted. Had to settle for blackberry tea or some other herb tea, coffee, NEVER.
I have tea no milk no sugar, however it comes hot or not so hot as long as it's tea. Favourite, however has to be Assam, a bit hard to get, but a real treat. My father used to have his tea no milk, two sugars, never coffee. He reckoned coffe to be the devils brew. His neighbour was diagnosed with cancer, and went the alternative way for reatment. One of the things was coffee enemas. Dad reckoned they found a use for the bloody stuff at last.
Is there a tea site where we can give the stuff it's due reverence?

Great thread, great topic, and I agree with everyone so far.
Cheers, mcpiper.

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: GUEST,Greyeyes
Date: 01 Jun 02 - 06:40 AM

Darjeeling is known as the champagne of teas. I often start the day with a brew of 2 parts Darjeeling and 1 part Lapsang Souchong. In days of yore when the tea caddy was one of the most important items in rich houses, with the key held only by the housekeeper, the caddy often had 2 compartments; one for china tea, one for indian. Guests were offered either, or a blend of the 2.

The debate about milk first or tea first has covered most ideas I've heard; one theory about pouring the tea in first was that posh people did it to show off how good the quality of their fine bone china was. Although thin enough to see through, if you could pour boiling tea straight into it without the cup cracking it proved your crockery was highly superior. People who put the milk in first were almost admitting that their cups were cheap. The flavour of the scalded milk seems a good reason to put the milk in first now people are not so bothered about showing off the quality of their cups. As Helen comments it definitely does affect the flavour. I too sometimes scald the milk before adding very strong coffee, about 1/2 & 1/2. It comes out like a cappuccino without the froth (although I usually take it black).

As to water, I live in a very hard water area and it makes disgusting tea. Until I moved to Devon for a couple of years and was able to drink the nectar that resulted from brewing tea with soft Dartmoor water I don't think I had ever tasted a decent cuppa. I now use a filter jug and only ever boil a kettle with filtered water. Not only does this mean I can make great tea, but the kettle no longer furs up with limescale. The aforementioned Taylors of Harrogate, makers of Yorkshire tea, now produce a hard water tea, I was given a box recently but haven't tried it; I'm reluctant to risk the limescale build up that results from even a couple of pots boiled with tap water.

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Helen
Date: 01 Jun 02 - 03:08 AM

EBarnacle,

I haven't heard about washing the cup with soap, although I never wash the teapot with soap.

I could mention the belief that washing beer glasses with soap ruins the fizz but then we'd have serious thread creep.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 30 May 02 - 04:53 PM

Tea is wonderful stuff. Are there any onthers out there who believe that washing the cup with soap injures the taste?

Subject: Lyr ADD: The Billy of Tea
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 30 May 02 - 12:03 PM

To tag as LyrAdd for the DT harvestors:

In this thread, Bob Bolton posts "the original" THE BILLY OF TEA identifying the tune as Bonny Dundee

Later post, also by Bob Bolton, of the 1970s version by The Bushwackers of THE BILLY OF TEA -1970s
. This post also includes Lyr for "Enda Kenny's Song EARL GREY."
Comment on tune variants at BILLY OF TEA - Alt Tune may be useful for annotation.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: cetmst
Date: 30 May 02 - 09:58 AM

One of the characters in James Michener's "Centennial" holes up in a cave in Colorado for the winter, carefully rationing his little bag of Lapsang Souchong. I'm sure it's what got him through.

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: cetmst
Date: 30 May 02 - 09:54 AM

I drink my coffee black and unsweetened; Laphroaig is my Scotch and the only tea I drink is Lapsang Souchong, all may be symptoms of my taste buds becoming elderly. Iced tea, the regional drink of the American south I do without. My favorite iced tea story concerns a meal in an Italian restaurant, no less, in San Antonio where I decided to top off a meal with a glass of Asti. As our table conversation progressed I became aware that the waitress had put at my elbow a glass of - you guessed it - Texans speak a different language.

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: DMcG
Date: 30 May 02 - 08:16 AM

My flatmate used to refer to Lapsang Souchong as 'Smoky Bacon Flavour'. If you haven't tasted it yet, its not a bad description.

I normally have a small collection of teas to choose from - yes, Taylors Yorkshire is a good one - but we usually end up drinking industrial waste tea as my wife normally drinks four pots per day (each of up to six cups depending who is in the house that day)

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: GUEST,Helen, on hubby's computer
Date: 30 May 02 - 08:03 AM

Sorry, I just had to revive this thread. I've just been sitting here for about half an hour re-reading it.

Something I learned and I have been testing out, about how to make coffee taste better: scald the milk a bit first.

Penny S (15-Apr-00 - 06:49 AM ) discussed this in relation to changing the taste of tea for the worse, but it seems to change the taste of coffee to the better.

The other thing I learned from Mudcat, on a thread about drinking hot chocolate - heat a bit of water with cocoa powder and stir it around a bit to release the chocolate flavour. Cocoa powder is actually greasy and if it isn't heated up a bit the cocoa remains gritty and the flavour is much less satisfying.

As a techno-Philistine, I have to confess that I use the microwave for both scalding the milk and heating up the cocoa/water mix. I'm also experimenting with scalding the milk for the hot chocolate too. It's not such an obvious difference as the coffee experiment, but I think that it does improve the taste a bit. (I have cut down my milk consumption radically over the last few years so I make cocoa with a cup of hot water and add a little milk, but now I make sure that the milk is scalded or heated.)

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: The Walrus
Date: 30 Jun 01 - 07:36 AM

I must have missed this thread the first time around.

Lapsand Souchong, I can't stand it, I think it tastes rather like tea made with the water used to boil some inferior smoked fish, disgusting muck.

I'll go along with the Assam, Darjeeling point of view, with Earl Grey (black and unsweetened) getting an honourable mention if I'm in the mood, however, the BEST tea in the world (at the right time) is "gunfire", a standard market tea (like PG etc) served hot, strong and slightly stewed, with milk (condensed milk works, but I find it too sweet) and a large tot of dark rum in it. It may sound apalling to some, but in the middle of a field in the pre-dawn chill when you're trying to wake up, it's pure nectar.

Regards

Walrus

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: roopoo
Date: 30 Jun 01 - 03:40 AM

When we had my dad's funeral party, I went to make another pot of tea, and was happily slinging bags into the pot when my mum informed me it was Darjeeling, and it brewed strong. Couldn't really taste any difference, but it was nice.

I like Rooibos, which is a South African tea, but it is somewhat relaxing, and sometimes I want to just curl up and sleep! I like Earl Grey, green tea (especially jasmine). Ian is now working in China and I have lots of different green teas. The trouble is, I can't read the packets. i always have green tea with Chinese food. One of my college friends from Singapore said it was always drunk with a meal to counteract the greasiness of the frying.

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Metchosin
Date: 30 Jun 01 - 12:32 AM

Great choice Bill! Highland Park is one of the grande dames of the world of scotch and less suited to coating piers and pilings than Laphroaig or Lagavulin.(ducking and running)

However, to do coffee right, one should take as much care or more than tea for a superb cup, and like some teas, coffee left to sit beyond five minutes is an abomination. Unfortunately a lot of people have never had any exposure to a really good cup of coffee.

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 11:54 PM

hmmm...I like Lapsang often, but prefer my Scotch mostly NOT heavily peated...(I do like Talisker, which has an explosive flavor, but not much peat...prefer MacAllan's and Highland Park and several others)

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: RichM
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 11:26 PM

If you like Lapsang Souchong, you might like the peaty taste of Laphroaig Scotch whisky.
I was introduced to this at a performance, while I was waiting for the prior act to finish. It was a fiddler I was supposed to accompany, but whose sense of rythmn was so highly individual, that I couldn't play along with it.
So while waiting,I had several glasses of Laphroaig, then went on and performed the sailing song John Kanakanaka. This I prefaced with a ten minute florid and highly original introduction--or so my band mates told me!...
I don't remember much about it, unfortunately...
But I did like the Laphroaig!

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 10:15 PM

Tea simply requires a bit more attention to detail to do it 'right' than coffee, not really harder, but you can't cheat and cut corners as easily, as the taste difference between well made tea and cheap, carlessly done stuff is more noticable. You CANNOT let the water boil for 5-6 minutes and have decent tea, the oxygen is gone, and it is flat & insipid. You control strength by adjusting the quantity, not by length of steeping time...(some latitude here, but not a lot).

ahh....but when you get it JUST right!......

(and, I'm sorry, my friends, but some tea (Oolong for example)you NEVER, NEVER put milk in!...I use NO milk, but I suppose for some teas at some times....*sigh*)

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 09:21 PM

Here's another song about a nonalcoholic beverage....I suppose it could be reworked: Makin' Earl Grey?

Makin' Coffee

By the way, if anyone knows who wrote this, I'd be interested in knowing. I learned it from Redmond O'Connell in San Francisco.

Aloha,
Mark

Oh, and I love Lapsang Souchong! But I also like Guinness and dark bread and Kona coffee.

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Sorcha
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 08:51 PM

No, please, no. Not Road Tar again......please help me. I've been kidnapped by a macadam crew.........send Yorkshire soon!

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Helen
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 08:48 PM

Refresh....ing, isn't it, drinking this lovely cup of tea.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 30 Jul 00 - 03:34 PM

Helen, even if you added potato bread to Mr Tea's disgusting feast, it's still not an Ulster Fry unless the tea is Nambarrie - assembled from parts in Belfast, and the best you can get, among the tea-bag varieties. It's even creeping on to Tesco shelves in GB now.

In the states I could find any flavour of tea I wanted, but the hardest to find was tea tea. Bit like trying to find natural non-lowfat yoghourt. Or non-lowfat anything for that matter.

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Gervase
Date: 30 Jul 00 - 03:04 PM

But has anyone ever found out where the heck in Yorkshire they grow the bloody tea?
Two other good names to look out for in tea are Jacksons (speciality teas in a distinctive cube caddy with very plain labels - they do a very good jasmine and all the oolongs and pekoes you could want) and the Irish Bewley's label, which gives a dark red and really refreshing cup, especially when brewed extra strong with loads of sugar (put in first, so the tea pouring down onto it dissolves it all and avoids the need for a spoon) and uncastrated milk (put in last so you can guage the colour of the resulting pint mugful to the right shade of mahogany).
Sorry, this is worse than pornography - I'm going to have to go and brew a cup of tea...

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 30 Jul 00 - 01:13 PM

thats enough refreshments for one day !

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 30 Jul 00 - 12:26 PM

thanks for making me laugh so much
Bobs Earl grey song mainly but also the bizarre thought that people are doing internet searches for Digestive Biscuits (...Brain the size of a Planet and they want me to find Digestive Biscuits....)
And I love the thought of someone giving up Pot rather than warming one !!

Roger

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: flattop
Date: 30 Jul 00 - 11:51 AM

I hope that it smells better than that Lapdog Shoestring tea.

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: sophocleese
Date: 30 Jul 00 - 11:47 AM

GUEST,guest. I finally found a place where I could purchase Yorkshire Tea and you're right, it is a good cup of tea. Thanks for letting me know about it.

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: sophocleese
Date: 29 Apr 00 - 11:53 PM

Helen, thanks fo rthe link, it is fun to read. I start to wonder when I hear wine tasters etc. speaking about notes of chocolate, apricot whatever how they would describe those flavours. A lovely apricot with a faint after taste of good chardonnay.

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Helen
Date: 29 Apr 00 - 11:16 PM

I read an article in our local paper yesterday about an Australian company which does mail orders on teas, mostly from China. Read the evocative descriptions of the types of teas - it's just like reading wine bottle labels

http://www.gray-seddon-tea.com/

[Disclaimer: absolutely no connection to this company or website]

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Gypsy
Date: 23 Apr 00 - 12:51 AM

Oh aye, you're right. Perhaps because you can get the finest tea for half the cost of the finest coffee. Maybe that is part of the reason that tea drinkers are happy. Now, the burning question: Thompsons of Glasgow, Megan? Is it available in the states, or do you really have to swim for it?

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Helen
Date: 22 Apr 00 - 07:11 PM

I just wanted to refresh this thread. Since we talked about tea, and how to make a good pot of tea I am enjoying my cups of tea even more, and when I make it and drink it I think of this discussion and the Mudcatters here on this thread. So, in a way it's like having tea with you all in cyberspace.

Also, I don't know what happened about the Mudcat Cookbook but it's obvious to me that we have to include a section on tea making: proper methods, what not to do, fun methods e.g. SunTea, recommended or not recommended varieties and brands including the love-it-or-hate it type like Earl Grey, recipes like Iced Tea, Sweet Tea, etc.

And another thought has struck me (ducking quickly for cover): coffee drinkers at work seem to drag themselves to the coffee pot for another fix, as if it were an addiction which drags their health in a downward direction, but tea drinkers seem to want tea because it is refreshing.

How's that for a controversial statement? I could be way off here and I am open to discussion. Any thoughts?

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: SINSULL
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 10:27 PM

OOLONG and PEPPERMINT From my English/Scottish mother: "Pot to the kettle, never kettle to the pot."

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Gypsy
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 10:20 PM

Amazingly enough, you CAN do solar tea on a cloudy day...living in the northwest nowhere/US you learn to work with fog...just takes longer. But, a sunny day, and leaving the jug on the stainless table outside works really fast!

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: GUEST,JenEllen
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 12:25 PM

Thanks Leej....the cold winter almost drove the thought of sun-tea out of my mind forever. Have to go find that ol'gallon jug.
~Elle

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Apr 00 - 02:25 PM

I was explaining how to make "Sun Tea" to some friends one day, and going on about how it works really well , but that you need sunny weather, whereas, on a cloudy day.....and one guy interrupted with perfect timing..."you can Tea forever!"..

maybe you hadda be there....

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Apr 00 - 05:59 AM

Bob,

I won't be able to go to the National this year - other commitments. I had hoped but sadly 'tis not to be.

I'm hoping to get to the St Albans on 12th May but there is another commitment whcichmight stop me, unfortunately. I'm fighting it, though.

LEJ, I like the idea of the Sun Tea. I'll have to try that out.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 17 Apr 00 - 12:11 AM

We had a wonderful sunny day here in Colorado today, and I took advantage of the solar power to make "Sun Tea." This is an American form of Sun worship. We take a glass gallon container, fill with ice-cold water, drop in several bags of tea (I used one Tetleys and 2 PG Tips), then set it in a very sunny place. The tea is brewed not by heat, but by the rays of the Sun. The tea produced is very smooth and full-bodied without being sharp or tannic. Makes a terrific iced tea.

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 16 Apr 00 - 11:52 PM

G'day Threadie:

I will do as you suggest - I did find the settings once before, but they seem to sneak back to default when I'm not looking (my home machine, not this one).

Who knows: This might be the cure for prolixity (McGrath of Harlow).

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Apr 00 - 05:03 PM

regarding Lapsang Souchong...many years ago I worked at a 'coffee house'...and I was in charge of the tea...and we did it right--loose tea, boiling water..etc...(even before Twinings..remember "Ming" teas in the gold cans?)..anyway, one night a black man came in..(you think you've seen black? this man was BLACK!)...turns out he was from Madascar, and when he saw Laspang on the menu he became very agitated..."Please make me a pot", he said in this wonderful accent.."this is what we drink in my country, and I have not had it in years"...so I did, and he smiled. But in a bit he came up to the counter and asked, "I would like another pot,...but please make it twice as strong!"....so I did, and he BEAMED! He was positively thriving on double strength Lapsang Souchong...it was very nice to be able to help him recapture a bit of his homeland. (Seems he was related to the out-of-power ruling family, and was NOT welcome in the country at the time)

I can drink Lapsang and Earl Grey, though usually only as a blend with other good teas..(in addition to the usual ones mentioned, Szchewan, Yunnan, ChingWo...etc.)The one 'flavored' tea I really liked was a Lychee tea I found at an oriental grocery. I used to be able to but good loose teas in bulk here..(Wash DC area)but it is getting harder as Starbucks plugs coffee on every corner.

In defense, I have also learned to drink 'good' coffee, meaning fresh ground and exotic types of high quality whenever I can afford it.

(oh, as resident traditionalist curmudgeon, I also object to calling herbal infusions "tea"...*grin*)

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Caitrin
Date: 16 Apr 00 - 03:20 PM

Iced tea is just tea with ice. No fancy flavoring or any such stuff. It can be consumed sweetened or unsweetened. (Almost always sweet in the south, usually unsweetened in the north. Another N/S difference is that it's served year round here, but only seasonally up north. Makes sense, because I can't imagine drinking anything cold during a New York winter.) With good iced tea, the tea is brewed normally, and the sugar and ice are added at the end. Only heathens like Mbo drink the premade Nestea stuff. : )

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: GUEST, Threadie
Date: 16 Apr 00 - 01:27 PM

Check yer 'disconnect if idle for more than...' in the advanced properties section of your Dial up connection. Or Un-check it as the case may be.

See does that do anything

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Apr 00 - 01:19 PM

"I have this problem with my ISP disconnecting if I don't post anything for 5 minutes" - I reckon Bob, you're not the only person with that problem on the Mudcat at times...

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Megan L
Date: 16 Apr 00 - 12:35 PM

Twinings peasents all if you want quality tea regardless of type one has to get it from Thomsons of Glasgow.

I still stock up when I get the chance to get back.

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 16 Apr 00 - 09:42 AM

G'day Helen,

Of course the whole raison d'etre of the digestive biscuit was originally the 19th century, Victorian obsession with fine white flour from the new-fangled steam mill. Beautiful fine flour, air-light sponges. light bright bread ... no fibre ... and endemic constipation!

When you read Victorian publications, they are full of advertisements for what prove to be a bunch of laxatives and purgatives. Dr Graham and his colleaugues had realised that the real answer was a bit of roughage - and decided that the best way to administer it was in biscuit form. Some of the wheatmeal biscuits I have encountered make it clear that they thought of it as roughage ... not merely fibre!

Are you going to make it to the National Festival Helen?

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: BS: Lapsang Souchong
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Apr 00 - 11:57 PM

JenEllen,

Thanks for mentioning the tea cosy - an essential part of tea making eequipment.

Ok, Jon, now I know what they compare with in Oz, probably what is called a Wheatmeal biscuit here. For some reason I always imagined that they would be a fine white flour. We also have one called a Granita which is similar to the wheatmeal but a little bit sweeter.

sophocleese, thanks for the recipe link, I'll look it up. In one recipe I saw on the net it said to use Graham flour, which wasn't very helpful at all since I had no idea what sort of flour that is. Kind of a circular argument, like There's a Hole in the Bucket, trying to find the answer to the conundrum of digestive biscuits. It's the simplest things which are often the hardest to find out.

Helen