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I actually drink and like both tea and coffee--pu erh, greens, oolongs, a really nice "King of the Blue Mountain" from Taiwan the lady out front asked some grumpy man in the back whether she could sell it. I do reuse the tea leaves, though not to the extent of drying them out in the sun like Japanese farmers did, or probably some still do. A major problem with that is the general lack of sun in the Pacific Northwest.
We might imagine that the grumpy man was the husband interrupted from reading his usual papers, the occasion being a gaggle of awkward food nerds making noise out front.
Bonus points to lojban for getting both "cha" and "tea" into tcati.
Caffeine is actually a huge problem, like, two espressos is one too many and three is kind of like I should stop working and avoid people more than usual because I'm incoherent. Or way more incoherent than usual.
Otherwise, the best latte I had was at Espresso Vivace (RIP that location, it was eaten by the light rail), pretty sure they had just changed the burr on the grinders. Best espresso probably Hines Public Market Coffee (also RIP, the building got upsized to condos and of course the rent went up and the indie crafters out); they had a barista who competed in the world barista championships and could pull out distinct blueberry notes in an espresso, stuff like that.
One might notice a small difference between "get some good tea and put it in hot water" and "find a coffee shop with an expensive machine and good coffee and a good barista, one who will pull new shots until they are satisfied with the result". I do not drink enough coffee to try anything like a Chemex with good beans at home. If one expands the definition of tea a little then you can do local things like using roasted dandelion roots. Dandelions are easier to extract around pine trees where there is no grass to lock them in, and with less lawn there is a lower risk of fun chemicals that someone has "treated" the lawn with. Also dandelions are pretty easy to identify, if you're an incompetent forager like I am.
P.S. I do not actually mix tea and coffee together, for those who noticed that detail.
P.P.S. The public utility water in Seattle smells like it came from a swimming pool; this can be corrected by letting the Chlorine air out for at least a day. Spiders like to sometimes go for a swim, so tie a coffee filter over the top? Regardless, it's probably good to have a few jugs of water around and cycle through them. Coffee folks in Chicago have also noted the "smells like pool spirit" problem.
P.P.P.S. I really did not inherit the love of English breakfast teas from my parents. Finest or worst Assam and I'm all like meh. If it's a proper chai like they serve from the big tins on the back of the motorcycle then that's more about the spice mix...maybe there's some floor-swept tea in there?
P.P.P.P.S. There are some Japanese green teas that are hilariously bitter.
P.P.P.P.P.S. On the food science front, the sugars and the bitters tend to cancel out, which is what's going on in a chai, milk sugars pairing with the tea and spice bitters. This is also the trick Starbucks uses, lots of sugar plus bitters, though there the bean is more about the roast (the process) than the bean itself (the product). Also for their volume they have to make large amounts of inconsistent beans taste the same, which is another reason they need the roasting process to dominate.
tags #food #coffee #tea #development
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