Food: Tea: Bag
Alphabetea   (+9, -2)  [vote for, against]
Letter-shaped tea bags

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.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 15 2009

[ ] 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. :)
-- FlyingToaster, Feb 15 2009


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.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 15 2009


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?
-- nineteenthly, Feb 16 2009


//perpetual cold// a low-grade allergy or poisoning of some kind perhaps ?
-- FlyingToaster, Feb 16 2009


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.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 16 2009


"There are approximately 1,500 different varieties of tea" - web site quote, so you may need a Chinese character alphabet to cover that lot.
-- xenzag, Feb 16 2009


How would I dot the i bag?
-- RayfordSteele, Feb 18 2009


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.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 19 2009


[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).
-- phundug, Feb 19 2009


Yes, i would definitely agree with that. Let it run.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 19 2009


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.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 19 2009


Aw, I thought it was going to be small letters die- cut from tea leaves.
-- FishFinger, Feb 20 2009


No problem, [up].

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.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 20 2009


A for Assam, Please.
-- gnomethang, Feb 21 2009


Or Camellia.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 22 2009


Camellia _is_ tea. Camellia sinensis, AKA Thea sinensis.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 22 2009


Don't the tags already indicate what kind of tea it is?
-- simonj, Feb 22 2009


There aren't always tags, and if i'm putting them together myself, i may not put tags on.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 22 2009


Cardamoms are just bloody fantastic, especially the big ones. There's no reason they shouldn't be considered teas.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 22 2009


//i don't think of herbs in English but Latin//
[XIXthly], does that extend to everyday recipes too?
-- coprocephalous, Feb 23 2009


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.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 23 2009


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.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 23 2009


No, ironically (an element of which my life is full along with tantalum), i can't stand herbal teas.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 23 2009


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.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 23 2009


It's a mild antioxidant, but probably not to a greater extent than green tea. However, it does seem to help psoriasis topically.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 24 2009



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