h a l f b a k e r yA riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a rich, flaky crust
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Most of our stuff is loose, but we have a few tea bags.
These are frequently for stuff which is not easy to
distinguish, for instance rooibosch and tea. I sometimes
end up making the wrong drink. This could be avoided by
making tea bags in the shape of the initial letter of the
plant from
which we wish to make the tea. For instance,
tea bags could be T-shaped, rooboisch R-shaped and
chamomile C-shaped. It would then be harder to make the
wrong tea.
[link]
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[ ] they'd break pretty easily... you could always dump them into little jars and label them... or label the tags (if applicable)... interesting plan though: teach kids the alphabet through drugs. I'll bun it if you can link me to an A-Z (all of them) of infusion herbs. :) |
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That would be about eighty K items. It would also
be commercial self-promotion and i'm not doing
that. However, i can blog.
Then again, i've
just made a cursory list of thirty-nine herbs and
only got to the C's, so how about: aniseed,
buchu, chamomile, dill, elecampane, fennel,
ginger, hibiscus, (ground) ivy (weirdly difficult
that one), jasmine, kinnikkinnik, lemon balm,
marshmallow, nettle, orange blossom, pennyroyal
(DON'T!), quassia, rooibosch, sumach, tea, unicorn
root, valerian, wormwood, xanthoxylum, yerba
mate, zedoary.
I can see a problem in several
herbs beginning with the same letter, e.g. lemon
balm, lemon grass, linden, lemon verbena and so
forth. |
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[+] I make these sort of mistakes all the time. It doesn't help
that I seem to have a perpetual cold, so can't tell teabags
apart by
smell. |
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OK, there may be a way of sorting that, though probably not with the herbs you're likely to drink in tea form. Have you thought of seeing someone, GP or otherwise, about it? |
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//perpetual cold// a low-grade allergy or poisoning of some kind perhaps ? |
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At a guess, it's probably either some kind of hypersensitivity state involving IgE, some kind of air-borne irritant or depressed specific immune response for some reason, or maybe just contact with a large number of people, say at a school or college. However, that's just a guess.
You can usually tell what something is by sight, though smell is easier. On the matter of herbs beginning with the same letter, if the tea bag was in the shape of the whole word, the problem would be solved, or maybe it could be made up of tiny tea bags, each in the shape of a letter, threaded onto a string like a necklace. |
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"There are approximately 1,500 different varieties of tea" - web site quote, so you may need a Chinese character alphabet to cover that lot. |
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How would I dot the i bag? |
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//contact with a large number of people, say at a school or
college// |
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Probably most likely. It's not quite *perpetual*, in the literal
sense of the world, but I do seem to use up an inordinate
amount of tissues, and spend a lot of time with a blocked
nose... |
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If i say something about that here, it'll probably lead to several incompatible opinions being expressed and you'll be worse off than you would've been before you asked. However, information as to the colour or otherwise would be helpful, as that would indicate the kind of inflammation involved. Timing would also help pin it down a bit.
I can think of a way of sorting it which is extremely unpopular and if i ever suggested it to a patient, well, that would be the end of that consultation! You may want to look at my YouTube account. [Grayure] insists that it works.
[RayfordSteele], with string. I like the idea of Chinese character tea. |
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[up on cloud nine]-- Try cutting down on the tissues. Sometimes tissues themselves can irritate your nose or even cause allergies. I found when I stopped using tissues, I no longer had to use them. (Only rarely, like now because I actually have a cold). |
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Yes, i would definitely agree with that. Let it run. |
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Would not a label with the letter be a more viable solution? Perhaps for lemon-grass, have a large LG, lemon balm with LB, lemon verbena with LV, lemon with L, lindon with LIN... Letter-shaped bags would cost more because they would be harder to mass produce and would break a lot easier. Not trying to steal your thunder, and I really hate to be the prick who gets to cast the first bone, but I just don't think this would solve any problems and would, in fact, create problems. |
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My problem with all this is that it's in English and i don't think of herbs in English but Latin. However, in a way that's an advantage because of the abbreviation of genus names to initials. That would mean that herbs which begin with one letter in the vernacular and another in Latin wouldn't work. It'd probably be OK in Italy or Romania. Anyway, yes, two letters per herb, probably in English. |
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Aw, I thought it was going to be small letters die-
cut from tea leaves. |
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//Let it run// I shall... cheers for the advice everyone! :^) |
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Ooh, now there's a thought, [FishFinger]. It would mean using herbs with large leaves or very small letters. Mullein would work well, for example, but many herbs would be tiny. |
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Yeaw, and it would put PG tips out of business very fast, as
they only use the smallest leaves... |
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Camellia?
I don't know... haven't tried it. |
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I thought C would be for Cardamom... or cummin... or curry. |
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Cardamom and cumin are spices, aren't they... |
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Camellia _is_ tea. Camellia sinensis, AKA Thea sinensis. |
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Don't the tags already indicate what kind of tea it is? |
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There aren't always tags, and if i'm putting them together myself, i may not put tags on. |
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UOCN, yes, they are spices, which are commonly used as flavorings in tea. Especially cardamom. |
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Cardamoms are just bloody fantastic, especially the big ones. There's no reason they shouldn't be considered teas. |
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Have looked at ingredients in Chai tea... there is rooibos leaves, but also cinnamon, cardamom and cloves... it's lovely, especially with milk |
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//i don't think of herbs in English but Latin//
[XIXthly], does that extend to everyday recipes too? |
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It can do, but oftener i would think of them nutritionally.
For some reason, i can easily get yerba maté, but rooibosch is really hard to find. |
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Really? Do you live in the UK, because if you walk into
Sainsbury's they have shelves of the stuff... |
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Yes, but whereas i can go to various corner shops and buy maté or roobosch, my aim is to sell it on and not buy it for myself, so i need to make a profit, and the quality of my stuff would be higher. Getting maté and rooboisch in bulk would basically swing round my whole business. |
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Oh, rigth, I was assuming you just wanted to drink it... :) |
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No, ironically (an element of which my life is full along with tantalum), i can't stand herbal teas. |
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I'm not massivly into herbal tea, but I do like drinking rooibos
and chai [with milk]. |
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Actually, rooibosch is quite good but i used to recommend it to people because it didn't do anything, but now it turns out it does. However, since compared to various other herbs it's quite inactive, it isn't generally stocked by the suppliers i use, so far as i know. |
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It's a mild antioxidant, but probably not to a greater extent than green tea. However, it does seem to help psoriasis topically. |
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