Ginger Baker & Masters of Reality

Subject: RE: Ginger Baker & Masters of Reality
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 05:12 AM

josepp, I read that the deeper reason for this state of affairs has to do with US independence, in particular with the Boston Tea Party. National pride has its price.

In 2003 some Americans renamed "French fries" to "Freedom fries". Just call tea "Freedom extract", and your gastronomers will put their hearts into it.

Subject: RE: Ginger Baker & Masters of Reality
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 07:01 PM

Remember the British POW in Bridge over the River Kwai who made tea every noon using the only teabag he had, and had been using for several years? His point was it was the ritual that counted, and the thing that kept him sane.
I'm not a huge tea man, but while in England I have always found myself drinking it by the gallon, and maybe because it IS better there.

Subject: RE: Ginger Baker & Masters of Reality
From: josepp
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 05:39 PM

We make sun tea also. It's aged sitting out in the sun and you can't beat it on a hot day. It's the hot tea I have problem with. It's just like rice. Americans don't know shit about rice. What they call rice, I call boiled maggots. I only drink hot tea on very cold days and I usually do have to put honey or lemon in it to be able to swallow. i drink it only because it's something hot to get into my system when it's freezing out but I won't drink it otherwise. It's horrible. Like Ginger says, "Pour BOILING water over the tea!!!!!"

Subject: RE: Ginger Baker & Masters of Reality
From: Tootler
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 05:20 PM

On the other hand, you folks over on the west side of the pond make very good iced tea. I drank a lot of it when I visited the USA.

Subject: Ginger Baker & Masters of Reality
From: josepp
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 05:11 PM

I've been listening to this CD--"Sunrise of the Sufferbus". Great hard-rocking blues. Great kick-off song with Ginger's drums pounding it out.

But the song I like the most is called "T.U.S.A." because I agree wholeheartedly. It's about his experience in America trying to find a decent cup of tea.

Now, I was raised on tea--mostly green but blacks and oolongs as well. In the Navy, tea was a no-no so I drank prodigious amounts of coffee--thick, black coffee--a dozen or more cups every single day for 6 years.

But upon becoming a civilian, I went back to my beloved tea. I drink several cups a day--mostly green but I love lapsang souchong and drink a lot of that. I also love genmaicha, which is Japanese brown rice tea. I like the tea flowers too--that open up inside a pot of boiling hot water and flavor the tea.

I have found a place that serves only Chinese tea and I spend a lot of time there because it's the only place I know where I can get a good cup of tea other than my mom's. Besides, they hold open mikes there and I play them a lot.

So, I'm more like a Brit in that respect. Americans have no fucking idea how to make tea. Here's the words to T.U.S.A. that expresses my plight. For you Brits who have never been to America, these words are completely true.   He mentions adding milk to tea and that's where I differ. Tea should have nothing in it but tea. I will drink it no other way:

Now this is serious
One thing in this country that really bothers me
Is the inability of Yanks to make a good cup of tea

Instructions are printed on the teabag
But they either can’t read or they think it’s a gag
I mean, pour boiling water over the tea
How simple can instructions be?

They bring you a cup with a lemon slice
And an unopened teabag beside itâ€"how nice
And a pot of water and it may be hot
But boiling it isn’t and so tea you have not

Why can’t we
Get our tea
We need tea
Set us free

It’s boiling water that brings out tea’s flavor
With a dash of milk, you have real brew to savor
They treat lukewarm brown water that looks like gnat’s pee
And it’s got nothing to do with a good cup of tea.

Pour boiling water over the tea
How simple can instructions be?
Pour boiling water over the tea
Pour boiling water over the tea
Pour boiling water over the tea…