Two of my favorite things

[bunnspecial]

Growing up in Tennessee, I'm with you here. Only in the last few years have I been able to order pre-made sweet tea at a few restaurants in KS. Most people look at you like you're crazy if you order sweet tea around these parts.

With the rate of diabetes around here, unsweetened tea isn't pretty freely available, but most restaurants assume that if you're ordering you're going to sweeten it yourself with your choice of artificial sweetener.

In general, though, if you order "ice tea" you're probably going to get sweet tea unless you specify otherwise.

 

[Gamer9430]

With the rate of diabetes around here, unsweetened tea isn't pretty freely available, but most restaurants assume that if you're ordering you're going to sweeten it yourself with your choice of artificial sweetener.



In general, though, if you order "ice tea" you're probably going to get sweet tea unless you specify otherwise.

Wow. That's the complete opposite of us here in NJ. If you ask for iced tea, it will be unsweetened, which half the time, there is no sugar on the table. Also, most of the time, restaurants won't even have sweet iced tea, and if they do, it's usually raspberry flavored (which I like so I don't care ½ the time).

 

[poiihy]

Wow. That's the complete opposite of us here in NJ. If you ask for iced tea, it will be unsweetened, which half the time, there is no sugar on the table. Also, most of the time, restaurants won't even have sweet iced tea, and if they do, it's usually raspberry flavored (which I like so I don't care ½ the time).

Raspberry flavored ice tea?? mmmmm that sounds good.

 

[Gamer9430]

Raspberry flavored ice tea?? mmmmm that sounds good.

It is indeed very good...

 

[128keaton]

Macs and coffee.

Quad, Venti Flat White from Starbucks and my son's Titanium DVI 1.0 Ghz with 1GB ram, 1mb L3 cache and 100GB hard drive.

The LCD you see came from my old dead TiBook 400. It's STILL being useful! 14 year old screen!

Man, that Flat White is good, but hella pricey. :E

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With the rate of diabetes around here, unsweetened tea isn't pretty freely available, but most restaurants assume that if you're ordering you're going to sweeten it yourself with your choice of artificial sweetener.

In general, though, if you order "ice tea" you're probably going to get sweet tea unless you specify otherwise.

In the south, iced tea is 1/2 sugar. Its just how we roll.

 

[bunnspecial]

Man, that Flat White is good, but hella pricey. :E

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In the south, iced tea is 1/2 sugar. Its just how we roll.

Back when I was in college, I always kept a pitcher of tea in the refrigerator. As a life-long teetotaler, that was my vice

I always got compliments on my tea, and would often have folks stop by just to get some. I scared a few health conscious folks away, though, when they saw how much sugar I put in it . It never kept them away for long. I usually made a pitcher every day and a half or so, and think I went through 5lbs of sugar a month.

I've made iced tea plenty of different ways, from using a kettle as well as making Sun tea, but really the easiest and IMO the probably the most consistent is to use a normal drip coffee maker.

Again, in college, I had coffee maker for tea only(it was white) and one for coffee(black). I explained the system to my roomates at the beginning of the year, and told them they were free to use both at their leisure(and even use the coffee and tea I bought) but to just not get the two mixed up. The taste of coffee is nearly impossible to get out of a drip pot once it's been used for that, and tea is the same in a coffee pot to some extent. I enjoy both beverages greatly(I probably drink more coffee than tea these days), but their tastes do not complement each other well. I nearly had a fight when I came home one evening to find a fresh pot of coffee in my tea pot! Fortunately a dose of Clorox and a trip through the dishwasher got the coffee taste out of it, and all was well again.

 

[128keaton]

Back when I was in college, I always kept a pitcher of tea in the refrigerator. As a life-long teetotaler, that was my vice



I always got compliments on my tea, and would often have folks stop by just to get some. I scared a few health conscious folks away, though, when they saw how much sugar I put in it . It never kept them away for long. I usually made a pitcher every day and a half or so, and think I went through 5lbs of sugar a month.



I've made iced tea plenty of different ways, from using a kettle as well as making Sun tea, but really the easiest and IMO the probably the most consistent is to use a normal drip coffee maker.



Again, in college, I had coffee maker for tea only(it was white) and one for coffee(black). I explained the system to my roomates at the beginning of the year, and told them they were free to use both at their leisure(and even use the coffee and tea I bought) but to just not get the two mixed up. The taste of coffee is nearly impossible to get out of a drip pot once it's been used for that, and tea is the same in a coffee pot to some extent. I enjoy both beverages greatly(I probably drink more coffee than tea these days), but their tastes do not complement each other well. I nearly had a fight when I came home one evening to find a fresh pot of coffee in my tea pot! Fortunately a dose of Clorox and a trip through the dishwasher got the coffee taste out of it, and all was well again.

That's kinda what I've been doing recently, I don't add sweetener in the pitcher though. I'd like to learn how to make it in a drip pot, I'm already tired of making it traditionally.

 

[eyoungren]

Man, that Flat White is good, but hella pricey. :E

LOL! Which is why we go to Starbucks maybe once or twice every two to four weeks. I drop $20 every time between me, my wife and my two kids.

 

[128keaton]

LOL! Which is why we go to Starbucks maybe once or twice ever two to four weeks. I drop $20 every time between me, my wife and my two kids. : D

I've somehow accumulated about $40 in Starbucks cash, so I can afford it, but still it's kinda like wow. The coffee itself has ruined any other coffee Starbucks makes for me. I now (if I'm not up for spending much) get a refresher without ice or a tall chai.

 

[bunnspecial]

That's kinda what I've been doing recently, I don't add sweetener in the pitcher though. I'd like to learn how to make it in a drip pot, I'm already tired of making it traditionally.

It's not too terribly difficult, although may take some trial and error to get right, and especially to suit it to your tastes.

I'd just toss 2-3 teabags in the basket of a 12-cup drip pot and let it go. It's been a while since I've done it that way, but I think that I would always use two Luzianne or three Lipton(but then I may be totally wrong on that). My preference is for Luzianne, although that can turn into a religious debate . I'd then pour it up into a pitcher with the sugar already added and stir while still hot. You can drink immediately by pouring over ice, let cool to room temperature and serve over ice, or stick it in the refrigerator for later. The room temperature approach is best, but probably only if you're planning on drinking it in the next few hours(that's what we do at home at for meals). Refrigerating is a good idea if you plan to keep the pitcher overnight, and I'd suggest not keeping it more than 2-3 days even if refrigerated.

Some folks will tell you to add a pinch of baking soda if you are storing in the refrigerator to keep it from getting cloudy. I never did that, although mine would definitely cloud if more than a day or so old. It still tasted fine, but just wasn't the most appealing to look at.

Of course, if you refrigerate you can still serve over ice, as is proper etiquette in the south

 

[128keaton]

It's not too terribly difficult, although may take some trial and error to get right, and especially to suit it to your tastes.



I'd just toss 2-3 teabags in the basket of a 12-cup drip pot and let it go. It's been a while since I've done it that way, but I think that I would always use two Luzianne or three Lipton(but then I may be totally wrong on that). My preference is for Luzianne, although that can turn into a religious debate . I'd then pour it up into a pitcher with the sugar already added and stir while still hot. You can drink immediately by pouring over ice, let cool to room temperature and serve over ice, or stick it in the refrigerator for later. The room temperature approach is best, but probably only if you're planning on drinking it in the next few hours(that's what we do at home at for meals). Refrigerating is a good idea if you plan to keep the pitcher overnight, and I'd suggest not keeping it more than 2-3 days even if refrigerated.



Some folks will tell you to add a pinch of baking soda if you are storing in the refrigerator to keep it from getting cloudy. I never did that, although mine would definitely cloud if more than a day or so old. It still tasted fine, but just wasn't the most appealing to look at.



Of course, if you refrigerate you can still serve over ice, as is proper etiquette in the south

Man I cannot keep tea for longer than a day, I can taste when things get nasty, but a lot quicker than some people. I can tell when milk will expire when drinking it, same for tea, if it's two days old, it tastes odd to me. Thanks for the tip, I'll have to go to our thrift store to see if I can find a cheap drip.

 

[bunnspecial]

Man I cannot keep tea for longer than a day, I can taste when things get nasty, but a lot quicker than some people. I can tell when milk will expire when drinking it, same for tea, if it's two days old, it tastes odd to me. Thanks for the tip, I'll have to go to our thrift store to see if I can find a cheap drip.

If you're going to use it for tea, I'd suggest hunting for the cheapest new one you can find.

Getting the coffee taste out of a drip pot is REALLY difficult-especially if it's been used a lot and/or had coffee burned in it.

 

[iModFrenzy]

We went a bit off-topic

 

[Gamer9430]

We went a bit off-topic

Not exactly, we are still talking about our favorite things, just now instead of coffee, we are on tea and how to make it, lol.

 

[jbarley]

Dealing with wise-ass used car salesmen and making out my income tax.

I really like a challenge.

 

[128keaton]

Dealing with wise-ass used car salesmen and making out my income tax.

I really like a challenge.

I too like dealing with *******s, cause you can unload/use rage to your advantage, not something a normal person can normally do during their day-to-day. As for taxes, bleh, have fun with that.

 

[eyoungren]

So…Starbucks has a 'Blonde' roast. And a 'Breakfast' roast.

Apparently enough people like them that they sell enough to justify existing.

But I don't see the point. If your roast is so light as to appear to be colored water or 'tea' <a nod to the current tea discussion here> why not just drink TEA?!

I'm a dark roast coffee person. I like PowerMacs, PowerBooks and dark coffee. We brew ours using the European method (1 level scoop of coffee per cup) PLUS an additional scoop on top.

That said, I'm not a coffee purist. I still add sugar and half & half to my drip coffee.

 

[jbarley]

I also like good coffee, strong dark and naked.
We grind beans fresh for each pot, and our favorite for the past few years is...

 

[eyoungren]

I also like good coffee, strong dark and naked.
We grind beans fresh for each pot, and our favorite for the past few years is...

Except for the weather up there, you live in coffee nirvana!

Lately, we've been using Peet's Major Dickason's Blend. It's the only roast of Peet's we like, but it's pretty good.

We also grind fresh and then brew.

I (we) go to Starbucks a lot, but that's only because Starbucks is the dominant coffee place around here. I live in the West Valley so any small business coffee roaster/shop is twenty minutes or more away around Central Ave and is going to charge the prices you find in that area. In that instance, believe it or not, Starbucks is cheaper - and there's maybe four or more (not including the Safeway near my home) in my area.

I hate that Starbucks killed Seattle's Best by buying them out. We actually traveled a bit to go to the one SeaBest store that was out here. SeaBest has always been better than Starbucks and if a store ever opens up near me (highly unlikely as Starbucks would be competing with itself) I'll drop Starbucks like a hot rock.

That said, I do like their new Flat Whites.

 

[jruschme]

Most of the Brownies I've seen used a smaller flash bulb-either a GE #5/ Sylvania P25 or M2 bayonet base for the medium format cameras, or a tiny little AG1 for smaller format cameras.

I grew up in the flashcube era, though I had enough experience with my parents' old Brownie Hawkeye that used #5 flashbulbs.

As for the Brownie Flash 620 camera I mentioned before, I managed to find a picture online:

According to the manual (also online), that would be a #11 bulb in the flashgun.

Sigh... I really have to get the rest of the collection out of storage one of these days... Thanks for the history and chemistry lessons...

 

[poiihy]

That's kinda what I've been doing recently, I don't add sweetener in the pitcher though. I'd like to learn how to make it in a drip pot, I'm already tired of making it traditionally.

Easy! Put tea bag(s) in the drip tray where'd you put the coffee, and let er rip! Or if it is loose leaf tea then use a filter bowl like you'd use for coffee.

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It's not too terribly difficult, although may take some trial and error to get right, and especially to suit it to your tastes.

I'd just toss 2-3 teabags in the basket of a 12-cup drip pot and let it go. It's been a while since I've done it that way, but I think that I would always use two Luzianne or three Lipton(but then I may be totally wrong on that). My preference is for Luzianne, although that can turn into a religious debate . I'd then pour it up into a pitcher with the sugar already added and stir while still hot. You can drink immediately by pouring over ice, let cool to room temperature and serve over ice, or stick it in the refrigerator for later. The room temperature approach is best, but probably only if you're planning on drinking it in the next few hours(that's what we do at home at for meals). Refrigerating is a good idea if you plan to keep the pitcher overnight, and I'd suggest not keeping it more than 2-3 days even if refrigerated.

Some folks will tell you to add a pinch of baking soda if you are storing in the refrigerator to keep it from getting cloudy. I never did that, although mine would definitely cloud if more than a day or so old. It still tasted fine, but just wasn't the most appealing to look at.

Of course, if you refrigerate you can still serve over ice, as is proper etiquette in the south

I use only one tea bag for 12 cups of tea. One Lipton (black tea) bag is enough for 12 cups!

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Man I cannot keep tea for longer than a day, I can taste when things get nasty, but a lot quicker than some people. I can tell when milk will expire when drinking it, same for tea, if it's two days old, it tastes odd to me. Thanks for the tip, I'll have to go to our thrift store to see if I can find a cheap drip.

The coffee maker I use is some "Rival" brand coffee maker with "WAL★MART" info pressed in the bottom. It was cheap. $9. The other ones were around $20. But this one is just as good. The only problem is that the pitcher/carafe (whatever you call it) drips when I pour too fast. The liquid would flow over and flow to the bottom and drip on the floor or table. Have to pour it slowly.

 

[eyoungren]

Here we go again!

Coffee and Mac!

 

[poiihy]

Coffee and Mac!

The Mac with 6 heads.

 

[JohnnyH1012]

Coffee and Mac!

I take it those are all LCD's Eyoungren? How's the power bill with 6 monitors?

 

[eyoungren]

I take it those are all LCD's Eyoungren? How's the power bill with 6 monitors?

Not that bad.

Or at least no more than I am used to. They aren't always on, and as LCDs they use less power than CRTs.

I have always left my computers running so as a baseline as to what the difference is I cannot compare.

I live in Phoenix though, so the concern is not the electronics. It's the A/C use in the summer. That is what always kills us.