I mentioned I have been experimenting with loose tea, and I like chamomile a lot at night and when I have already had WAY too much caffeine during the day, so when I found this deal for chamomile tea
It just showed up. Do you folks know how much tea 1lb of chamomile tea is?
PRO-TIP: THIS IMAGE IS NOT AT ALL AN ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF HOW LARGE THIS PACKAGE IS:
I now have a lifetime supply of chamomile tea.
wvng
How will you store it to preserve its flavor for the rest of your life?
Hawes
Have you tried Teavana?
Frowny
I will never not associate chamomile tea with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOw2X8tty0k
I blame a misspent youth in front of the TV in Canada.
aimai
Oh. My. Is it time for a Chamomile party? I hear they are really exciting.
aimai
RossInDetroit
I really like Lapsang Souchong, the smoky scented one. The cheapest way to get it was in a 16 oz package, which I ordered. A pound is a lot of tea.
I’m having P G Tips right now.
trollhattan
Looks like you’re going to have to start a book group at your house. This could keep it supplied for a couple years.
For the first meeting, make sure nobody mistakes Tunch for a hassock. No good can come of that.
Punchy
You are now officially a TeaTard.
BGinCHI
Plus you have to remember this:
“Though the camomile, the more it is trodden on the faster it grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted the sooner it wears.”
(1 Henry IV, 2.4.
Xenos
About a decade ago, when we had a bad run of colds in the house, my father in law shipped us a kilo of wild chamomile collected in Greece. We have 95% of it left. When they sort out my estate the grandchildren are going to puzzle over the buckets of the stuff stashed in the closets.
Comrade Mary
You’re blond, John. You can use some of it as a rinse to bring out the highlights in your hair.
Loneoak
@aimai:
A chamomile party makes me think of this recent Onion piece: Ask A Man With A Russian Accent Trying to Convince You To Go To An Ecstasy Party.
Ask A Man With A West Virginian Accent Who Is Trying To Convince You To Drink Some Of This Damned Chamomile.
Poopyman
@wvng: This is a question I’d like to have answered, too, since I’ve got a shitload of tea around the house in various containers. And the answer to Cole’s question, BTW, is “a shitload”
piratedan
we’ll know when John’s had too much tea when Mr. Tibbles becomes a front page poster on this blog.
Mudge
New business opportunities often show up in brown paper bags.
trollhattan
@Poopyman:
Nuh-uh: “Metric Buttload”
sukabi
well, I’d suggest taking out a reasonable amount, and then vacuum packing and freezing the rest until you’re ready to use it… nothing worse than stale, tasteless 1000 year old tea.
TheMightyTrowel
You know, you could grow the stuff yourself and have an endless supply of the fresh herb as well as a very aromatic lawn…. This was my partner’s solution to the Horrible Grass that invaded our garden last year and it’s been a spectacular experiment – the stuff grows like crab grass but it’s USEFUL!
The Ancient Randonneur (formerly known as The Grand Panjandrum)
Now I understand Rosie escaping at every opportunity.
Librarian
Typical-give ’em an inch, and they’ll take a chamomile.
Omnes Omnibus
@Comrade Mary: Cole is a blond? I would not have thought so. Of course my mental image of him is from the cartoons that someone drew a few months ago and the picture of him being hogtied on his 21st b-day.
Just Some Fuckhead
From care2.com:
Dogs can drink Chamomile too! To help your dog calm down, brew him some chamomile around 1/2 the dosage of humans… great for high strung animals who need a little relexant. See more about Dr. Marty and his holistic approach to animal care.
Put the giant bag of tea in the garbage can and go for a long ride.
CaptainFwiffo
Even if you get fancy, super-expensive, loose-leaf, homosexual, America-hating, patchouli tea, it’s still really pretty damn cheap per-serving.
Strandedvandal
So, you’ve got a big package do ya?
Benjamin Cisco
alttext FTW.
JPL
@Just Some Fuckhead: You know John’s gonna try that on Rosie.
Omnes Omnibus
@JPL: She’ll barf.
Paul in KY
You will need to freeze it. Like reefer, tea loses its potency after months of non-refrigerated storage.
Omnes Omnibus
@Paul in KY:
So you’ve heard, right?
sukabi
@Omnes Omnibus: maybe, but she’ll wait until John’s feet are in the barf zone.
Quicksand
John, you are an astute political observer and have an uncanny ability to distill issues down to their substance, for further analysis and/or mocking as necessary.
And because of that I’m really amused by these posts where you stumble around through life like most of the rest of us do.
Violet
I guess we know what everyone in the Cole family is getting for Christmas. And birthdays. And just because.
Bill H.
And, other than by brand, no one has yet suggested that you hold a tea party?
gnomedad
Can you convince Tunch it’s catnip?
Uncle Glenny
I buy it by the Ki. That’s kilogram for you youngsters.
Southern Beale
All I know about chamomile tea is that it’s what Peter Rabbit’s mama gave him for his tummy ache after he’d had that wretched experience in Mr. Magregor’s carrot patch.
Paul in KY
@Omnes Omnibus: It generally never has time to ‘age’ around my place. But, erm, I have heard that this can happen.
It has happened with some tea my mom gave me after it had sat around her kitchen for a couple years.
Redshirt
“Another Crumpet, Mr. Wigglesbum?”
“Why thank you, Ms. Pennyshiny.”
“And more tea for you, Sir Teddington Teddy Bear?”
“RAWR!!!”
joel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwArLwsP3nA
Tea is quite a bit looser than coffee.
Mnemosyne
I decided that I needed something to calm me down at night, so I got this tea from Adagio Teas. Basically, it’s a better-ingredient version of Celestial Seasonings’ Sleepytime Tea. So if anyone’s been wondering why I’ve been so uncharacteristically mellow after about 10:00 Pacific time, that would be why. It really does knock me out for the night.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne: I’d shop there for the tea names alone. I only glanced but I wonder if they have sampler packages.
trollhattan
@Redshirt:
Heh, one tea party leads to…
Cartman: Would you like some more tea, Polly Prissy Pants?
Polly: Yes, Eric, I would like some tea. Thank you.
Cartman: You’re very welcome, Polly Prissy Pants. Would you like some tea, Clyde Frog?
Clyde: Yes, please, Eric. Why are you so cool?
Cartman: Oh. I don’t know, Clyde Frog. I just am.
Polly: You are so strong and smart, Eric. Everybody likes you.
Cartman: Why, thank you, Polly Prissy Pants. How nice of you. [sips]
Stan: [behind the bushes with the others] Dude, this is pretty fucked up right here.
Kenny: (I think if we run, try to get Eric to drop his tea)
Kyle: Come on! Let’s go make fun of him!
Stan: No, dude. This look really serious. I think we’d better get help.
Kyle: Really?
Peter: [back at table] We like ya, Eric. You are the coolest guy in the world. This is tremendous tea.
Cartman: Why, thank you, Peter Panda. This is Distinctive
Earl Greychamomile.Polly: Eric is the best!
Clyde: Hooray for Eric!
Peter: Eric kicks ass!
Morbo
@trollhattan: Except Cole will be naked.
Maude
@Redshirt:
You know, these homey type posts by Cole bring out the worst in us.
JGabriel
John Cole:
Is it really that bad? I know a hundred teabags of Twining’s Green Tea usually weighs in at 7-8 oz., so a pound of Chamomile would make about 200 cups, I’m guessing. About the same as 100 count boxes of Lipton.
.
Omnes Omnibus
@Morbo: The mind, it recoils in horror. Some things, having been imagined, cannot be unimagined.
Brachiator
You could always set up an outdoor stand and sell tea. I’ve got a box of pomegranate green tea, 18 bags weighing in at 1.2 ounces. Man, you have got a lot of tea.
cleek
@Yutsano:
they definitely do. i have a desk full of them, and along list of things to buy when i run out of samplers.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Yutsano:
Last time I shopped there they did. The samples came in little metal cannisters large enough to hold about 1/2 of an ounce each, i.e. enough to make 3-4 different batches depending on how much leaf you want to use, which is nice if you just want to “date” a tea without making much of a commitment.
John on the other hand is now married to the chamomile.
RossInDetroit
Now I wonder what it would be good mixed with. I’m thinking chamomile lemonade. Infuse and chill it, then add lemon juice and sugar.
My sister grows the stuff by the bushel. Maybe this summer we’ll try it.
RossInDetroit
I shopped for bulk tea recently and concluded from the widely varying costs for similar product that branding, packaging, advertising and shipping far outweigh the cost of the material for most products.
If you like a particular tea enough to make a commitment to drinking a lot of it, bulk packaging and quantity purchase can save you 70% or more on the cost.
ant
I’m not sure how much a pound of tea is, but if it look anything like a pound of reefer, that’s quite a bit……
Seriously Cole, the thought ‘this is gonna look like a pound a weed’ never crossed you mind when you ordered this stuff?
Yutsano
@cleek: @ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Tanks you two. I might have to do some more serious perusing after work. And deal with the inevitable nagging about spending money on anything but the upcoming nuptials.
El Cid
When it’s bagged tea or looseleaf, I make it the same easy way.
If you have one of those small hot teapots, fine. I just use a measuring cup (2 cups), put the tea in, and boil the water (letting it back off after it boils).
If it’s looseleaf I cut the bag open and dump it in.
Pour the water in, wait whatever time you want, and then pour it into a cup through a fine mesh kitchen strainer.
Done. Tastes the same, easy as all get-out, and all you do to clean is let the tea dry and dump it.
Lazy and non-beautiful, but there you go.
Violet
The link in the original post doesn’t go to an Amazon page. What is that post? “I dislike participating in group discussions” ?
Luthe
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Adagio has moved away from sampler tins to sampler bags. Still the same amount of tea, just in a fancy zip-top bag.
Stash and Adagio are far superior to Teavana any day, even if you do have to pay shipping.
ant
speaking of ordering crap, a friend of mine ordered a five gallon bucket of some dill pickles from this outfit.
I don’t much care for dill pickles, but these garlicy mamas were really good.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Luthe:
My personal favorites for some time have been teaspring.com and shanshuiteas.com, mostly because I like to explore the endless variety of the more unusual Chinese oolongs (a hobby/obsession which is sort of like drinking single malt Scotch, only x1000 less expensive) which are hard to find elsewhere in the English language stores.
JoyceH
Teas made from flowers are always bulky. Have you tried hibiscus tea? Lovely, makes a red-purple tea, good for weight control and lowering blood pressure, very tart.
John Cole
@Violet: I was screwing around with surveys when the doorbell rang from UPS, so I probably just pasted one of the survey items it. Looks like it is a question from the PRCA-24.
jibeaux
Pose the bag of tea with Tunch. That should help for scale.
Semi-related, does anyone know what’s going on with Roger Ebert? I still love the man, but why is at least half of his fb feed telling you what is currently on sale somewhere? There are other services for notifying you of the price of a case of coconut water, I should think.
singfoom
What’s this chamomile crap? I can’t stand coffee, but as an American raised by at least one Briton, I grew up on British style tea.
That means milk + sugar. And for those who like a strong ass cup of black tea, get Yorkshire Tea (the red, though the gold is good as well). I am addicted to the stuff and have a standing order on Amazon (can’t find it locally anymore).
Keith G
@RossInDetroit: Lapsang Souchong is a great tea.
geg6
@Punchy:
And where might I deliver your Internets, sir?
I now have Pepsi splattered all over my monitor.
RossInDetroit
@Keith G:
It’s strong enough to stop your heart so I cut it 50/50 with decaf. You still get the piney aroma but eventual sleep is still possible.
I’ve been a coffee drinker for 35+ years but more and more I’m gravitating toward tea. Especially in the winter when the indoor temp is in the low 60s. Cooled coffee tastes nasty but a 62 degree cup of tea is still drinkable.
Mnemosyne
@Yutsano:
They have sampler packets for the Adagio brand teas, but not for the custom blends, unfortunately. That’s what’s kind of cool — customers can create their own blends and then put them up for sale on the website.
The Adagio brand that’s closest (and thus offers a sample for $2) seems to be Cha Cha, though I think they claim it’s energizing rather than sleep inducing to avoid any lawsuits.
Comrade Mary
@jibeaux:
OH HELL YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU!
Corner Stone
Anyone want to bet that Cole will be stubborn enough to finish all that damn tea? No matter how much he comes to hate it? And will refuse to give any of it away?
I’m sensing a pattern…
Cheryl from Maryland
Yikes! The pop up ad I see with this post is from “The Mighty Leaf” tea company, urging us to experience the “Silken Tea Pouch.” No thanks.
Corner Stone
@jibeaux:
How can a bag of tea be fat?
Corner Stone
@Cheryl from Maryland: No, please. Please experience the Silken Tea Pouch.
Mnemosyne
Also, too, I love lapsang souchong. I keep trying to get other people to drink it, but apparently they find it frightening. I got my last batch from a local company called Bird Pick.
Delia
@Omnes Omnibus:
She’ll barf.
Just put a teaspoon of leaves in a couple of big spoonfuls of Rosie’s favorite wet dogfood. She’ll scarf it down without noticing anything’s different.
trollhattan
@Corner Stone:
I could see that, unless he figgers out a way to parlay it into a critter fundraiser. “Biggest donation gets a quarter-pound of chamomile. Second-biggest gets half a pound.”
And so forth.
catclub
@ant: I have resisted the urge to buy the 7.5 pound ( or 15 pound) bag of honey roasted sesame sticks from Bulk_foods.com.
I figure I would eat approximately 1 pound a day for 7 days…. and be pretty unhappy afterward.
quaint irene
So, is this the infamous package that led to the escape of Rosie and Lily?
When I’m flush, I like ‘Big Red Sun’ and ‘Palm Court Blend’ from Harney & Sons.
Paul in KY
@singfoom: I can generally find Yorkshire Gold at my local ‘Giant Liquor Store of Doom’.
I would think Whole Foods or Trader Joes would stock it.
singfoom
@Paul in KY: One would think. This is not the case at my local Whole Foods. I won’t go to the local Trader Joes, because it has what I like to refer to as “The Parking Lot Ramp of Death”.
I ordered a kilo of Yorkshire Red loose leaf and got what I take to be what’s in the bags anyways….I was hoping for real loose leaf like other teas I’ve gotten. I’m stocked for a year or two though. :)
trollhattan
@singfoom:
I’m pretty certain, having been to fifteen or twenty TJs over the years, that one of their real estate requirements is “tiny, crappy, crowded, confusing parking lot.”
It does not kill off my TJ love, but I cringe every trip there.
ohsuzanna
I feel your shock and awe….I ordered 16 oz of spearmint tea online a couple of years ago. I just wasn’t thinking. Every time someone came into my kitchen and saw the plastic bag on top of my refrigerator, I felt compelled to point at the bag and say “Spearmint tea”…just spearmint tea”.
After about eighteen months, I realized that I didn’t have enough life expectancy left to use that much tea, I threw it away.
bob_is_boring
I feel like I always do this, but I feel compelled to point out that…
Chamomile isn’t “tea.” Tea is made from the camilia sinensis plant; herbal “teas” are properly called infusions or tisanes. (I got obsessed with tea (and tea-like beverages) when I quit the drinkin’.)
We have to keep up our elitist liberal nomenclature superiority lest we fall into a elitist liberal nomenclature superiority gap.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Corner Stone: You first.
ruemara
I adore lapsang souchong but I’m in the hinterlands of NCal and can’t find my twinnings. But my homestay chinese students bought me gifts of real pu-urh tea and china green from their home province. I like them and I sort of miss making my own blends. Like say, anything I do would improve over this weak ass TJ Jasmine Green. Blech.
Cain
Finally, John writes a blog about how big his package is. Fantastic. I’m going to rest now.
Peter J
@JGabriel:
1lb would be about 75 cups for me. Nowhere near a lifetime…
fitzwili
@John Cole
@ anyone else with copious amounts of chamomile
Get a mason jar and fill it half way with chamomile, then fill jar with olive oil and put in a sunny window sill for a couple of weeks.
Use the oil for sunburn, rashes, eczema, mild burns, dermatitis and dry skin. If you have babies, it is the best thing in the world for irritated skin and diaper rash. I use it on my pit bull when her skin gets irritated.
It is less messy to drain the chamomile out of the oil after it has finished macerating, but I am lazy and usually just leave it in.
Chuck Butcher
The only type of tea I drink is iced tea and I do drink a fair amount. It is my “bar drink” because coffee is generally scorched or crap quality and soda pop has too much sugar to have more than one or two and I consider diet undrinakable. That is iced tea with a lemon slice squeezed in and no sugar – no lemon or with sugar is undrinkable.
An evening in a bar is pretty cheap for me. So is the aftermath…
Corner Stone
@Cheryl from Maryland: With gusto, my dear lady! With gusto!
BruceFromOhio
@Quicksand: This. On a Monday, no less.
Zuzu's Petals
Too bad you have a lifetime supply. I posted a link in the other thread to the best chamomile out there. Of course all their herbal (and green and black) teas are spectacular:
Da Cha Teas