March 26, 2025 • 37 mins
These simple, often disposable devices make brewing a single cuppa quick and easy. Anney and Lauren steep in the science and history of tea bags.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Saber Prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Reese and.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm Lauren vocal Bum and today we have an episode
for you about tea bags.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, oh yes. Was there any particular reason this was
on your mind? Lauren?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
H I think this is one of the ones that
I So. I have a few different methods of coming
up with potential episode topics, and one of them is
standing blankly in my kitchen and looking through all of
my cupboards and trying to glean inspiration. And I think
I opened my coffee and tea cupboard and was like, oh,
(00:44):
what are tea bags about?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
What are they about? Indeed, uh, well, listeners, you may
know I have some kind of issue with tea. I
don't know what it is, but it makes me feel
a little nauseating.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
And black tea more than other types of tea, right, yes,
and like not usually herbal teas except for mint tea.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Oh mint tea would be terrible. Yes, because I also
have an issue with mint. I thought somebody gave me
a product that they told me was not tea but
tasted like tea, and it gave me the same reaction.
So I don't really know what's going on? Yeah, but
(01:36):
I do. I love tea, but it is not a
thing that I can generally enjoy. I have a friend
who this very weekend is like, We're going to try
this new tea product, and I'm like, all.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Right, all right, I'll set aside some time to feel
heck and awful.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
I mean, maybe it don't worry. I don't know. I
don't know what the specific issue is, but generally I
don't have a good time with tea, which is a
shame because it's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Oh yeah, it's delicious. Uh, but I mean, you know
there are right, you know, like like other than black tea,
there are many kinds of teas and herbal infusions that
are delicious.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
It's true. And I've been thinking about usually when I
go get dim Sum, the tea they offer makes me
feel a little sick, but not very sick.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Okay, So I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I'm trying to figure it out. There are degrees degrees
of whatever it is, but I do miss it.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, you've posited previously that it might be related to
Tannin's or something like that.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, so, and that would make sense, especially if you're
kind of reactive to red wine as well.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah, not really reactive to rip one.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Non specific.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
I remember reading something that was like med and tea
kind of share this thing. So I don't know, but
I mean, hey, similar to I'm just like, yeah, Bell Peppers,
why why do you hate me?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Why can I not digest you? Other people can? Apparently
our bodies. They just like to throw in some girl
balls sometimes they do. It's true, it's cool, that's I
get it. You get bored, You're like, oh, let's try
(03:35):
something different, like nausea.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I do have a lot of friends who like tea
this so I always have tea bags on hand. But
they they taught me. Oh well, you can see our
past episode we did on tea time with our friend
(04:00):
doctor Julia Skinner. That was one.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Oh yeah, absolutely, Also our episode on tea we did
one of those also Bubble tea dim sum Sure, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yes, okay, But I think this brings us to our question.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I think it does.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Tea bags. What are they?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Well, tea bags are a type of device for making
tea or herbal infusions without getting bits of the tea
and or herbs into the drink, and there are many
devices for this purpose, but tea bags are specifically Satchet's
made of some kind of mesh that's closed up enough
to hold dried tea leaves or you know, bits of
(04:50):
non tea herbal infusion material, but permeable enough that stuff
like water and molecules of flavor and color can flow
through the mesh. So, you know, if you fill a
tea bag with stuff and then add it to a
vessel like a cup or a pot with hot water,
the water will hydrate the stuff. The stuff will infuse
(05:11):
the water with those flavors and colors, thus creating tea,
but it will prevent the bits of tea leaves or
whatever from getting out into the drink. Great convenient tea
bags can come in many shapes and materials. They can
be intended for a single cup or a whole pot.
They can be disposable or refillable. They're often manufactured to
(05:31):
be disposable as a indeed convenience item for selling or
brewing a single serving of tea without the fuss of
measuring it out. And in these applications the bags often
have like a cotton string attached with a small paper
tag at the end and tended to hang out of
your cup or pot and allow you to lift the
bag out of the end of the steeping period without
(05:53):
you know, reaching in and grabbing this wet, squishy thing
from water that was just boiling less fun, I can
tell you from personal experience, those tags often have like
logos or sayings or whatever printed on them. And for
all of that explanation, I mean, tea bags are really
(06:14):
what it says on the tin. It's uh, it's like
a tea bag is like a little transport shuttle for
all the flavors of tea to help them get to
their final destination being your face.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Oh yeah, thanks t bags, Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
The satchets themself can be made with anything with good
permeability to it. You know, like with any with any
of these materials, you're looking for a balance of function,
expense and environmental safety. Right, so, you know, you've got
biodegradable options like paper or paper fiber composites, or more
expensive materials like polylactic acid, which is made from plant starch,
(07:02):
or soilon, which is made from corn starch. And then
you've got non biodegradables plastics like nylon or pet And
if you've ever seen silk tea bags, they were almost
certainly made with one of these. I don't think anyone
is using real silk fiber for tea bags anymore. Tea
bags are shaped in ways that will allow the stuff
inside to expand as they soak up water, you know,
(07:26):
like puffy envelope shapes or folded shapes that expand along
with the contents are popular because they pack fairly flat. Yeah,
but there are also three D shapes like pyramids, with
more room inside from the start. Depending on the material,
they might be sealed with a heat press or with
a small staple, or with stitching or with glue. The
(07:46):
tag can be attached to the string in the same
ways that the bags can be sealed. And then, because
you know, anything with such good permeability is going to
need to be properly sealed up in some kind of
outer layer for you know, transport, so that the tea
doesn't just start like brewing itself on its way to you.
Individual tea bags are packaged either in single or multi
(08:09):
bag pouches made from things like waxed paper or foil
lined paper, or plastic or tins. In these days, tea
bags can be manufactured, filled, sealed, tagged, and packaged entirely
by machine as many things can. You can also buy
or make reusable tea bags with things like cotton or muslin.
(08:33):
These will typically have a draw string to keep the
tea you know, mostly inside pretty much all.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, okay, okay, okay, Well what about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Well this is not Willy Wonka, and generally speaking, tiacoutrement
is not edible. But okay, actually kill joy corner. If
you're concerned about minimizing microplastics in your food and drink,
and you probably should be, Tea bags made from plastics
(09:09):
can release billions of micro and nanoparticles into every cup
that you brew, like ranging around fourteen to fifteen billion particles.
So if that's the thing you're concerned about, I would, uh,
you know, not use nylon or pet or other plastic
(09:29):
based tea bags. Sorry. If any of you really are
fond of those little pyramid shapes, that's usually what they're
made of. Yeah, and how concerned should you be? That's
a different episode maybe that we're gonna get an expert
opinion on because Annie's friends with that one person at
the CDC. But you know, like if you can minimize it, great,
(09:54):
of all the things that are giving you cancer, right,
now I don't know. Don't keep yourself up about it.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
They're who's sleeping anymore these days? Please contact us and
tell us, well, we do have some numbers for you, some.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Additional less kill joy numbers. I suppose, yes, all right.
So the tea bag packing machines on the market, the
ones that I saw anyway, I didn't look at all
of them. Most of them reported being able to create
some two hundred and fifty bags per minute. The global
market for tea bags is something l like eight billion
(10:40):
dollars a year because they are very popular. Even in
the United Kingdom, which is serious about tea, people buy
some ninety six percent of their tea in tea bags.
There is as record for the largest tea bag produced
(11:03):
by Saudi tea company Rabia Tea in twenty fourteen. It
measured four meters tall and three meters wide and weighed
two hundred and fifty kilos. I'm not sure whether it
had any tea in it or if that was just
the bag. Photos made it look like it was empty,
but other reports of previous winners seemed like they were
(11:24):
filled with tea and that the numbers would extrapolate out
to it being filled with tea. I'm not sure at
any rate. I was just giving that in metric. Let
me give you the imperial that's thirteen by ten feet,
weighing five hundred and fifty pounds. If it was indeed
filled with tea, it held the rough equivalent of one
hundred thousand cups worth of tea leaves.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
These Guinness records need to be more clear about what
the record.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Is, Okay, I I you know, I tracked down some
some news articles about it. I couldn't. I couldn't entirely
figure it out. It's all right, I'm okay with there
being mystery in the world. There's also a record for
the most tea bags tossed into mugs in thirty seconds.
(12:18):
That record was set in twenty twenty two by one
Dan Douglas of Massachusetts, who tossed thirteen tea bags in
thirty seconds into mugs. Good for you, Yeah, good for
your Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
I feel like the weight would be very difficult to manage, bud, yeah, hey, yeah,
making it work.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
There's also a record for the most unopened single wrapped
tea bags in a collection, which at least as of
twenty nineteen, was one thy two hundred and thirty seven
amassed by a girl from Denmark.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yeah, okay, okay, So clearly tea bags are popular. That
has not always been the case, especially in certain parts
of the world.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
No, and also they're a relatively recent invention.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Actually, yes they are, and we will get into that
when we'll get into the history.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Which we are going to do after we get back
from me. A quick break for a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, all right.
So cee ort episode that I apparently forgotten I did.
But tea originated thousands of years ago in China. According
to most historians, it arrived in Europe in the sixteen
(14:02):
hundreds and to America soon after. And notably for this
episode and the opinions therein, tea has a lot of
traditions around it.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yep, a thing. It's a thing that people are passionate about.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
They certainly are, Lauren, all right. So that brings us
to our next question of the episode. Who invented the
tea bag? As always with these episodes, there's a lot
of discussion and disagreement. But with that disclaimer, let's get
into some of the theories. One of the theories with
(14:41):
the most credence dates back to nineteen oh one, when ROBERTA. C.
Lawson and Mary Malarin filed for a patent for a
quote tea leaf holder out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In their filing,
they described a process that would create a single cup
of tea involve less waste. Basically, they identified that a
(15:03):
lot of tea made in the more traditional ways often
went stale and got thrown away, so they were trying
to find a solution to this. For their holders. They
used a stitched meshed fabric, and this was to prevent
the leaf particles from floating into the mouth and to
give the water ample space to infuse. Hot water was
(15:26):
poured over the bags and balla cup of tea. However,
the product never really took off. There's not much about
it after this patent filing that you could find, all right.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
So.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Another one of the popular legends is that tea bags
were invented or perhaps popularized sort of by accidents, by
Thomas Sullivan, an American tea importer. Allegedly, he sent out
samples of his product in nineteen oh eight in these
small silk pouches in an attempt to save costs by
(15:59):
not shit whipping the samples in the traditional metal tin.
His intention was not that customers put the pouches directly
in the hot water to make a single cup of tea.
But they did, and they liked it, and they ordered more.
Sullivan sent the orders back in tins, but then he
heard back from them that they wanted the satchels. They
(16:21):
didn't want these tins. Yeah, Sullivan made a few tweaks,
including replacing the silk with a gaze fabric. He used
finer tea leaves, and he really really leaned into marketing. However,
there isn't too much evidence to back this up either,
but it is a very popularly told story.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Yeah it's fun, you know. I love an accidental invention story.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Sure, I kind of loved the idea that customers were
just like, oh, I'll just put this right. And I
love the idea that the customers invented the tea Almost yes, okay,
so whatever happened. By the nineteen twenties, tea bags were
(17:07):
fairly popular in the United States. Early tea bags may
have used glue to secure the bag, which affected the taste, though,
and some of the fabrics did too, so that there
was quite a lot of adjusting that was done to
the packaging to hone in on the method. The nineteen
thirties is certainly when a lot of this innovation seemed
(17:28):
to be happening. Many in the sectors started experimenting with
their own products. They tried out all kinds of materials,
and they eventually landed on paper fiber bags, moving away
from hand sewn to machine made. The heat sealed tea
bag was invented in nineteen thirty and during World War One,
(17:50):
tea bags were included in the rations for some soldiers,
and I saw that in some places reported as one
of the reasons tea bags started to grow popularity as
soldiers came back. We're like these tea bags.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Though, Okay.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Another thing to consider when it comes to tea bags
is the tea itself. A superintendent of the Amgori Tea
Estate in India named William mc kersher often gets the
credit for inventing the crush, tear, curl or CTC method
of manufacturing and processing tea. Very basically, this turned the
tea leaves into small bits perfect for putting it into
(18:26):
a tea bag. And this all happened in nineteen thirty
one also very basically people have thoughts about this.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yes, so so to expand just a little bit here,
the CTC either crush tair curl or cut tair curl
method of processing tea right creates these little bits of tea.
They're perfect for putting into tea bags and not ideal
for any other use. You know, it's a machine process
(18:59):
that bruises, cuts, and twists the tea into these even
little granules like like fine gravel. CTC made tea bruise
quicker and stronger than whole leaf tea. But again, it's
really only good for going into tea bags because it's
sort of icky to use loose because the process also
produces a bunch of dust and like weird little bits
(19:20):
of debris that might not sink as readily as whole
tea leaves do, leaving you with just sort of crowding
your cup and that's not fun. It can this is
part of where some of the controversy here comes. And
it can be tremendously cheaper to produce tea via CTC,
to the point that eighty to ninety five percent of
(19:40):
black teas today are made using this process. And it's
cheaper because you don't have to be that careful with it,
Like it opens the door to machine harvesting and machine
processing of tea leaves, whereas traditional methods use experienced and
expensive u human labor. I'm hopefully expensive, well paid at
(20:03):
any rate. Yeah, tea experts say that you lose a
lot of subtletea in the flavor with CTC processing because
all of that man handling or machine handling can flatten
the flavor of tea because it over oxidizes it. And
it can also open the door to mixing in lower
quality ingredients. And so all of these things are reasons
(20:26):
why humans who are passionate about tea are sometimes passionate
about CTC being goofy. Goofy is not the word that
they would use.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
I know, it's definitely not. But in spite of that,
tea bags still were making they were making a name.
In nineteen forty five, William Uker's work All about Tea
described four different types of individual sized tea bags that
(21:01):
were commercially available. World War Two material shortages did impact
tea bags. If you want to read about it, there's
a whole thing about tea bags in the UK specifically,
But this was one of the reasons they gave that
one to reiterate of the reasons they gave that it
(21:23):
took a long time for the UK to get to
get on board with tea bags. A company out of
Germany called Tikane is credited with coming up with the rectangular,
double chamber bags that many of us are familiar with
in nineteen forty nine. And then I just had to
(21:44):
include this. Lauren and I were sharing our the fun
we had reading some of these quotes from other countries
about the tea bag that were not very pressed. I
have to say I limited myself with this one. Okay.
(22:07):
An Australian publication in nineteen fifty wrote quote, I wonder
how many Australians know what a tea bag is. It
is a device used by Americans who are coffee lovers
for making tea. They drop a little muslin bag of
tea leaves in a pot of hot not necessarily boiling water,
(22:28):
or perhaps into the tea cup itself. They later removed
the bag, whether to keep it for another day, I'm
not sure. This whole thing kind of summed up the
feeling a lot of countries outside of the US how
(22:49):
they felt about this tea bag situation in the United
States in particular.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Yeah, I mean, I suppose one way or another we
were kind of responsible for it. So uh yeah, I
really do need to emphasize the extreme shade attached to
not necessarily boiling.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah, yes, there were there were several others, And one
of them was like Americans try this tea and then
they decide they like coffee after all.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
To be fair, the one time I was in England,
a lot of the coffee I had there would make
me prefer tea, So.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
You know, you know, it was a You can find
plenty of these quotes, should you decide? Okay, So the
tea bag did get a boost during the nineteenth fifties,
and as a reminder of the fifties was a time
(24:03):
when convenience and modern food products like television dinners were
all the rage, and the tea bag got caught up
in that popularity, especially in the United States, but it
got a little traction in other places.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
A nineteen fifty two Lipton ad claims that they were
the first to print instructions on how to use their
tea bags on the tags of the tea bags that
they sold, and they called their bags flow through, So.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
I mean that's what they were all doing this whole time.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
But yeah, but they put a new name on it.
And yeah. According to National Geographic the UK resisted tea
bags for a long time and the nineteen sixties they
accounted for only three percent of the UK market. But
as mentioned, nowadays that percentage is almost the inverse, accounting
(24:57):
for almost ninety six percent. So yeah, a journey, Yeah,
a real journey. In nineteen ninety two, Tetley Tea launched
a round tea bag.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
It's just another it's just another type of flat envelope shape.
It was just a marketing thing, but they were like,
oh ours is round. It's yeah, but yes, uh, Tea
bags are growing in popularity and partially because they are
(25:33):
growing higher in quality and because of marketing gimmicks. For example,
that Saudi company that made that dang giant tea bag
as it did it as a marketing stunt for putting
out non CTC tea bags like whole leaf tea bags.
And there's a lot of there's a lot of innovations
(25:53):
in the industry, you know, like they're they're definitely the
Some of the market ports say that those pyramid tea
bags are going to be even more popular in the
future because they a feel fancier and be A lot
of companies are trying to switch away from the non
biodegradable materials to something a little bit more friendly for
(26:14):
our bodies and or the planet.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
So yeah, yeah, that's what I read too. Uh, We're
going to see a lot more fancier tea bags perhaps.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I you know, I I love I love getting a
box of tea bags. I mean, I love tea in general.
I love herbal teas, I love the whole shebang. I
love making a pot of tea. And I've got I'm
one of those humans who has collected an improbable amount
of tea, Like I should really be drinking more of it.
If I am going to insist upon continuing to buy it,
(26:52):
you know, it's not. It doesn't last heck and forever.
So uh but yeah, it's just nice. It's nice. It
is nice. It's like a nice little treat. And a
bag does make it really convenient to just make one cup,
it does?
Speaker 1 (27:10):
It does?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
I mean an easy pour over infuser made of like
wire mesh is also very easy.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yeah. I had to resist from researching that because I
was like that, it's.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Not nope, nope, No, we're talking about today, Nope.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
For today. I also had to resist looking up all
the different ways people use tea bags as like a
like for their face, oh oh, like for cooking. But listeners,
let us know, oh yeah, let us know if you
(27:47):
have any of these uses for tea bags or just
your thoughts, just your thoughts in general.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Yeah. Oh, if you're one of those humans with very
strong tea opinions, we would love to hear them.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
We would, we would. But that is what we have
to say about tea bags for now.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
It is. We do already have some listener mail for you, though,
and we are going to get into that as soon
as we get back from one more quick break for
a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
And we're back Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you, and
we're back with listeners.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Name t tea.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
It just both went to like a small happy place,
we did.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
I was imagining the reading the book and the fog
outside and having the tea goodness our road. In about
our recent episodes on Kanye and Chilula. Kangnac is an
interesting alcohol and is fairly versatile. It is enjoyable as
(29:07):
an after dinner or later evening relaxing drink, especially in
the winter if you're sitting by a fire, something about
a comfy chair not a Monty Python reference, and a
nice fire in the fireplace, a glass of cognac and
a good book. Pets sitting on the floor snoozing as well.
Not something I generally keep around, but if I buy
(29:28):
a bottle it will be with some recipes and some
drinking in mind. I find it really works well in
some desserts. Chilula is one of my favorite hot sauces.
I myself would classify it as I must have on hand.
The original has a nice, gentle touch of heat as
well as a bunch of flavor. It mixes well with
(29:51):
so many things and can be used in so many
different sauces. It is almost like a mother sauce to
start with. I discovered a while back. If you like
wet buffalo wings, make them with chilula in the sauce
and it just hits so right. I know several people
who have done this, and we all think that the
chilula wings are better than the regular buffalo wings. Always
(30:14):
look forward to what you will be getting out. Always
starts cravings and as more things to the feast. Okay,
I have to say, I don't think we mentioned this
in our previous listener mail that was about Chilula, but
we had our super producers stepped in, yeah and offered
(30:36):
a lot of opinions about the best kind of Chilula.
A lot of fans in the savorty.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Yeah yeah, yeah. Super producer Andrew prefers that hot Habernaro,
the one with the with the pineapple in it. Yeah.
But pretty much every single human who who I mentioned
that episode to was like, oh, yeah, that's my favorite
hot sauce brand.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Yeah. And I feel like we've gotten a lot of
emails that are essentially this is my it's my go to,
yeah kind of what I was saying, where I have
my others, but like if I just need a hot sauce,
like a nice not too hot, but like nice, garlicy
salty chilula.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
And yeah, I still don't have a lot of experience
with Kangnac, but this sounds lovely right Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, No, I really, I mean, we are moving very
rapidly towards spring here at Atlanta. But yeah, need to
need to find need to like do some research, find
a bottle, look up some dessert recipes for it, for sure.
I've definitely never cooked with cognac before, and now now
I'm really curious about it because right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, I bet, I bet that would be delicious. Another
another experiment, something to try.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Ben wrote, hope you're both well. I had to write
to you again to comment on two recent episodes, Yax
and Irish soda Bread. I have never heard of caraway
seeds or raisins being used in soda bread here in Ireland.
The only additional ingredient you tend to find in soda
bread here is guinness. Here it seems to be eaten
in only two circumstances. One for breakfast, either toasted or untoasted,
(32:29):
with generous amounts of Irish butter, usually the wheaten variety
whole wheat yeah. Two accompanying seafood showder, again with generous
amounts of Irish butter, usually the Guinness bread variety. I'd
also like to say a special thanks for bringing in
Irish history in an honest but not too depressing way.
(32:49):
I find the history of the famine is still not
understood properly in the UK, so always good when it's
discussed well, I think I mentioned in an earlier email,
but my fiance makes a sweet version of guinness bread
that includes treckle, making it much richer and darker, but
still has to be eaten with Irish butter. Come to
think of it, I'm not sure soda bread is anything
other than a socially acceptable way to eat too much butter.
(33:13):
As for yas pet chops, here sell something called a yaka,
which is hardened yac cheese and dark puppy. Barren Oh,
named from the Tolkien character in the Cimillion, loves them
and they're meant to be very good for him and
his teeth. He certainly likes them more than a guinness
see attached before and after pictures.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
So cute.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Also, the name is great yes, yes, Oh, my goodness
faces beautiful. Yeah. That was so. Immediately after we finished
recording that episode about yas, I was like, how do
I go at yac cheese? I need to order some,
(34:02):
And the answer is essentially you can get it in
dog treats in the United States and that's it. There
are There have been a couple of like specialty cheesemakers
and ranchers around the US that have produced yac cheese
or restaurants that have imported yak cheese. But it's really neat,
(34:24):
it's really niche and difficult to find, which is such
a shame because I realized blatedly also that I never
really put like a like a like tasting notes in
the milk or cheese part of the yak thing. And partially,
I mean, you know, like we were talking about so
many different kinds of cheese, as it's impossible to give
a single flavor profile. But I saw the milk described
(34:48):
as like unexpectedly sweet and herbal like, like you know,
you get this like finish of all of these like
grasses and herbs, which makes sense because yaks are grazing
on different stuff than what most most of the rest
(35:08):
of the world of dairy drinkers are used to used
to their bow vines from grazing on.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
So yeah, maybe one day, yeah, yep, just need to
go hug some yaks and eat their products. Also, any
(35:35):
excuse to eat a lot of butter? Oh and I understand.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Yes, certainly not no, uh yeah, And I might have
forgotten to mention the Guinness, the Guinness Setta, Ginnessetta breads,
M did I I don't have no idea. It was
so long ago.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Who can remember. Certainly we've ever done an episode on tea,
but some listeners have written in with recipes. I'm I'm
thinking on my I might try, I might try.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Yeah, yeah, time to make a comeback from my last
not great attempt, but yeah, oh.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Gosh, and this with the seafood chowder right sounds so good?
Oh no, no, mm well, Thank you so much to
both of these listeners for writing in. If you would
like to write you as you can, Our email is
hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
We're also on social media. You can find us on
Blue Sky and Instagram at savor pod, and we do
hope to hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from my heart Radio, you can visit
the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our super
producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
(37:08):
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way.
Hello, and welcome to Saber Prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Reese and.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm Lauren vocal Bum and today we have an episode
for you about tea bags.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, oh yes. Was there any particular reason this was
on your mind? Lauren?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
H I think this is one of the ones that
I So. I have a few different methods of coming
up with potential episode topics, and one of them is
standing blankly in my kitchen and looking through all of
my cupboards and trying to glean inspiration. And I think
I opened my coffee and tea cupboard and was like, oh,
(00:44):
what are tea bags about?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
What are they about? Indeed, uh, well, listeners, you may
know I have some kind of issue with tea. I
don't know what it is, but it makes me feel
a little nauseating.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
And black tea more than other types of tea, right, yes,
and like not usually herbal teas except for mint tea.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Oh mint tea would be terrible. Yes, because I also
have an issue with mint. I thought somebody gave me
a product that they told me was not tea but
tasted like tea, and it gave me the same reaction.
So I don't really know what's going on? Yeah, but
(01:36):
I do. I love tea, but it is not a
thing that I can generally enjoy. I have a friend
who this very weekend is like, We're going to try
this new tea product, and I'm like, all.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Right, all right, I'll set aside some time to feel
heck and awful.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
I mean, maybe it don't worry. I don't know. I
don't know what the specific issue is, but generally I
don't have a good time with tea, which is a
shame because it's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Oh yeah, it's delicious. Uh, but I mean, you know
there are right, you know, like like other than black tea,
there are many kinds of teas and herbal infusions that
are delicious.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
It's true. And I've been thinking about usually when I
go get dim Sum, the tea they offer makes me
feel a little sick, but not very sick.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Okay, So I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I'm trying to figure it out. There are degrees degrees
of whatever it is, but I do miss it.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, you've posited previously that it might be related to
Tannin's or something like that.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, so, and that would make sense, especially if you're
kind of reactive to red wine as well.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah, not really reactive to rip one.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Non specific.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
I remember reading something that was like med and tea
kind of share this thing. So I don't know, but
I mean, hey, similar to I'm just like, yeah, Bell Peppers,
why why do you hate me?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Why can I not digest you? Other people can? Apparently
our bodies. They just like to throw in some girl
balls sometimes they do. It's true, it's cool, that's I
get it. You get bored, You're like, oh, let's try
(03:35):
something different, like nausea.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I do have a lot of friends who like tea
this so I always have tea bags on hand. But
they they taught me. Oh well, you can see our
past episode we did on tea time with our friend
(04:00):
doctor Julia Skinner. That was one.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Oh yeah, absolutely, Also our episode on tea we did
one of those also Bubble tea dim sum Sure, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yes, okay, But I think this brings us to our question.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I think it does.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Tea bags. What are they?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Well, tea bags are a type of device for making
tea or herbal infusions without getting bits of the tea
and or herbs into the drink, and there are many
devices for this purpose, but tea bags are specifically Satchet's
made of some kind of mesh that's closed up enough
to hold dried tea leaves or you know, bits of
(04:50):
non tea herbal infusion material, but permeable enough that stuff
like water and molecules of flavor and color can flow
through the mesh. So, you know, if you fill a
tea bag with stuff and then add it to a
vessel like a cup or a pot with hot water,
the water will hydrate the stuff. The stuff will infuse
(05:11):
the water with those flavors and colors, thus creating tea,
but it will prevent the bits of tea leaves or
whatever from getting out into the drink. Great convenient tea
bags can come in many shapes and materials. They can
be intended for a single cup or a whole pot.
They can be disposable or refillable. They're often manufactured to
(05:31):
be disposable as a indeed convenience item for selling or
brewing a single serving of tea without the fuss of
measuring it out. And in these applications the bags often
have like a cotton string attached with a small paper
tag at the end and tended to hang out of
your cup or pot and allow you to lift the
bag out of the end of the steeping period without
(05:53):
you know, reaching in and grabbing this wet, squishy thing
from water that was just boiling less fun, I can
tell you from personal experience, those tags often have like
logos or sayings or whatever printed on them. And for
all of that explanation, I mean, tea bags are really
(06:14):
what it says on the tin. It's uh, it's like
a tea bag is like a little transport shuttle for
all the flavors of tea to help them get to
their final destination being your face.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Oh yeah, thanks t bags, Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
The satchets themself can be made with anything with good
permeability to it. You know, like with any with any
of these materials, you're looking for a balance of function,
expense and environmental safety. Right, so, you know, you've got
biodegradable options like paper or paper fiber composites, or more
expensive materials like polylactic acid, which is made from plant starch,
(07:02):
or soilon, which is made from corn starch. And then
you've got non biodegradables plastics like nylon or pet And
if you've ever seen silk tea bags, they were almost
certainly made with one of these. I don't think anyone
is using real silk fiber for tea bags anymore. Tea
bags are shaped in ways that will allow the stuff
inside to expand as they soak up water, you know,
(07:26):
like puffy envelope shapes or folded shapes that expand along
with the contents are popular because they pack fairly flat. Yeah,
but there are also three D shapes like pyramids, with
more room inside from the start. Depending on the material,
they might be sealed with a heat press or with
a small staple, or with stitching or with glue. The
(07:46):
tag can be attached to the string in the same
ways that the bags can be sealed. And then, because
you know, anything with such good permeability is going to
need to be properly sealed up in some kind of
outer layer for you know, transport, so that the tea
doesn't just start like brewing itself on its way to you.
Individual tea bags are packaged either in single or multi
(08:09):
bag pouches made from things like waxed paper or foil
lined paper, or plastic or tins. In these days, tea
bags can be manufactured, filled, sealed, tagged, and packaged entirely
by machine as many things can. You can also buy
or make reusable tea bags with things like cotton or muslin.
(08:33):
These will typically have a draw string to keep the
tea you know, mostly inside pretty much all.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, okay, okay, okay, Well what about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Well this is not Willy Wonka, and generally speaking, tiacoutrement
is not edible. But okay, actually kill joy corner. If
you're concerned about minimizing microplastics in your food and drink,
and you probably should be, Tea bags made from plastics
(09:09):
can release billions of micro and nanoparticles into every cup
that you brew, like ranging around fourteen to fifteen billion particles.
So if that's the thing you're concerned about, I would, uh,
you know, not use nylon or pet or other plastic
(09:29):
based tea bags. Sorry. If any of you really are
fond of those little pyramid shapes, that's usually what they're
made of. Yeah, and how concerned should you be? That's
a different episode maybe that we're gonna get an expert
opinion on because Annie's friends with that one person at
the CDC. But you know, like if you can minimize it, great,
(09:54):
of all the things that are giving you cancer, right,
now I don't know. Don't keep yourself up about it.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
They're who's sleeping anymore these days? Please contact us and
tell us, well, we do have some numbers for you, some.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Additional less kill joy numbers. I suppose, yes, all right.
So the tea bag packing machines on the market, the
ones that I saw anyway, I didn't look at all
of them. Most of them reported being able to create
some two hundred and fifty bags per minute. The global
market for tea bags is something l like eight billion
(10:40):
dollars a year because they are very popular. Even in
the United Kingdom, which is serious about tea, people buy
some ninety six percent of their tea in tea bags.
There is as record for the largest tea bag produced
(11:03):
by Saudi tea company Rabia Tea in twenty fourteen. It
measured four meters tall and three meters wide and weighed
two hundred and fifty kilos. I'm not sure whether it
had any tea in it or if that was just
the bag. Photos made it look like it was empty,
but other reports of previous winners seemed like they were
(11:24):
filled with tea and that the numbers would extrapolate out
to it being filled with tea. I'm not sure at
any rate. I was just giving that in metric. Let
me give you the imperial that's thirteen by ten feet,
weighing five hundred and fifty pounds. If it was indeed
filled with tea, it held the rough equivalent of one
hundred thousand cups worth of tea leaves.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
These Guinness records need to be more clear about what
the record.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Is, Okay, I I you know, I tracked down some
some news articles about it. I couldn't. I couldn't entirely
figure it out. It's all right, I'm okay with there
being mystery in the world. There's also a record for
the most tea bags tossed into mugs in thirty seconds.
(12:18):
That record was set in twenty twenty two by one
Dan Douglas of Massachusetts, who tossed thirteen tea bags in
thirty seconds into mugs. Good for you, Yeah, good for
your Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
I feel like the weight would be very difficult to manage, bud, yeah, hey, yeah,
making it work.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
There's also a record for the most unopened single wrapped
tea bags in a collection, which at least as of
twenty nineteen, was one thy two hundred and thirty seven
amassed by a girl from Denmark.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yeah, okay, okay, So clearly tea bags are popular. That
has not always been the case, especially in certain parts
of the world.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
No, and also they're a relatively recent invention.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Actually, yes they are, and we will get into that
when we'll get into the history.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Which we are going to do after we get back
from me. A quick break for a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, all right.
So cee ort episode that I apparently forgotten I did.
But tea originated thousands of years ago in China. According
to most historians, it arrived in Europe in the sixteen
(14:02):
hundreds and to America soon after. And notably for this
episode and the opinions therein, tea has a lot of
traditions around it.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yep, a thing. It's a thing that people are passionate about.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
They certainly are, Lauren, all right. So that brings us
to our next question of the episode. Who invented the
tea bag? As always with these episodes, there's a lot
of discussion and disagreement. But with that disclaimer, let's get
into some of the theories. One of the theories with
(14:41):
the most credence dates back to nineteen oh one, when ROBERTA. C.
Lawson and Mary Malarin filed for a patent for a
quote tea leaf holder out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In their filing,
they described a process that would create a single cup
of tea involve less waste. Basically, they identified that a
(15:03):
lot of tea made in the more traditional ways often
went stale and got thrown away, so they were trying
to find a solution to this. For their holders. They
used a stitched meshed fabric, and this was to prevent
the leaf particles from floating into the mouth and to
give the water ample space to infuse. Hot water was
(15:26):
poured over the bags and balla cup of tea. However,
the product never really took off. There's not much about
it after this patent filing that you could find, all right.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
So.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Another one of the popular legends is that tea bags
were invented or perhaps popularized sort of by accidents, by
Thomas Sullivan, an American tea importer. Allegedly, he sent out
samples of his product in nineteen oh eight in these
small silk pouches in an attempt to save costs by
(15:59):
not shit whipping the samples in the traditional metal tin.
His intention was not that customers put the pouches directly
in the hot water to make a single cup of tea.
But they did, and they liked it, and they ordered more.
Sullivan sent the orders back in tins, but then he
heard back from them that they wanted the satchels. They
(16:21):
didn't want these tins. Yeah, Sullivan made a few tweaks,
including replacing the silk with a gaze fabric. He used
finer tea leaves, and he really really leaned into marketing. However,
there isn't too much evidence to back this up either,
but it is a very popularly told story.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Yeah it's fun, you know. I love an accidental invention story.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Sure, I kind of loved the idea that customers were
just like, oh, I'll just put this right. And I
love the idea that the customers invented the tea Almost yes, okay,
so whatever happened. By the nineteen twenties, tea bags were
(17:07):
fairly popular in the United States. Early tea bags may
have used glue to secure the bag, which affected the taste, though,
and some of the fabrics did too, so that there
was quite a lot of adjusting that was done to
the packaging to hone in on the method. The nineteen
thirties is certainly when a lot of this innovation seemed
(17:28):
to be happening. Many in the sectors started experimenting with
their own products. They tried out all kinds of materials,
and they eventually landed on paper fiber bags, moving away
from hand sewn to machine made. The heat sealed tea
bag was invented in nineteen thirty and during World War One,
(17:50):
tea bags were included in the rations for some soldiers,
and I saw that in some places reported as one
of the reasons tea bags started to grow popularity as
soldiers came back. We're like these tea bags.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Though, Okay.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Another thing to consider when it comes to tea bags
is the tea itself. A superintendent of the Amgori Tea
Estate in India named William mc kersher often gets the
credit for inventing the crush, tear, curl or CTC method
of manufacturing and processing tea. Very basically, this turned the
tea leaves into small bits perfect for putting it into
(18:26):
a tea bag. And this all happened in nineteen thirty
one also very basically people have thoughts about this.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yes, so so to expand just a little bit here,
the CTC either crush tair curl or cut tair curl
method of processing tea right creates these little bits of tea.
They're perfect for putting into tea bags and not ideal
for any other use. You know, it's a machine process
(18:59):
that bruises, cuts, and twists the tea into these even
little granules like like fine gravel. CTC made tea bruise
quicker and stronger than whole leaf tea. But again, it's
really only good for going into tea bags because it's
sort of icky to use loose because the process also
produces a bunch of dust and like weird little bits
(19:20):
of debris that might not sink as readily as whole
tea leaves do, leaving you with just sort of crowding
your cup and that's not fun. It can this is
part of where some of the controversy here comes. And
it can be tremendously cheaper to produce tea via CTC,
to the point that eighty to ninety five percent of
(19:40):
black teas today are made using this process. And it's
cheaper because you don't have to be that careful with it,
Like it opens the door to machine harvesting and machine
processing of tea leaves, whereas traditional methods use experienced and
expensive u human labor. I'm hopefully expensive, well paid at
(20:03):
any rate. Yeah, tea experts say that you lose a
lot of subtletea in the flavor with CTC processing because
all of that man handling or machine handling can flatten
the flavor of tea because it over oxidizes it. And
it can also open the door to mixing in lower
quality ingredients. And so all of these things are reasons
(20:26):
why humans who are passionate about tea are sometimes passionate
about CTC being goofy. Goofy is not the word that
they would use.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
I know, it's definitely not. But in spite of that,
tea bags still were making they were making a name.
In nineteen forty five, William Uker's work All about Tea
described four different types of individual sized tea bags that
(21:01):
were commercially available. World War Two material shortages did impact
tea bags. If you want to read about it, there's
a whole thing about tea bags in the UK specifically,
But this was one of the reasons they gave that
one to reiterate of the reasons they gave that it
(21:23):
took a long time for the UK to get to
get on board with tea bags. A company out of
Germany called Tikane is credited with coming up with the rectangular,
double chamber bags that many of us are familiar with
in nineteen forty nine. And then I just had to
(21:44):
include this. Lauren and I were sharing our the fun
we had reading some of these quotes from other countries
about the tea bag that were not very pressed. I
have to say I limited myself with this one. Okay.
(22:07):
An Australian publication in nineteen fifty wrote quote, I wonder
how many Australians know what a tea bag is. It
is a device used by Americans who are coffee lovers
for making tea. They drop a little muslin bag of
tea leaves in a pot of hot not necessarily boiling water,
(22:28):
or perhaps into the tea cup itself. They later removed
the bag, whether to keep it for another day, I'm
not sure. This whole thing kind of summed up the
feeling a lot of countries outside of the US how
(22:49):
they felt about this tea bag situation in the United
States in particular.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Yeah, I mean, I suppose one way or another we
were kind of responsible for it. So uh yeah, I
really do need to emphasize the extreme shade attached to
not necessarily boiling.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah, yes, there were there were several others, And one
of them was like Americans try this tea and then
they decide they like coffee after all.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
To be fair, the one time I was in England,
a lot of the coffee I had there would make
me prefer tea, So.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
You know, you know, it was a You can find
plenty of these quotes, should you decide? Okay, So the
tea bag did get a boost during the nineteenth fifties,
and as a reminder of the fifties was a time
(24:03):
when convenience and modern food products like television dinners were
all the rage, and the tea bag got caught up
in that popularity, especially in the United States, but it
got a little traction in other places.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
A nineteen fifty two Lipton ad claims that they were
the first to print instructions on how to use their
tea bags on the tags of the tea bags that
they sold, and they called their bags flow through, So.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
I mean that's what they were all doing this whole time.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
But yeah, but they put a new name on it.
And yeah. According to National Geographic the UK resisted tea
bags for a long time and the nineteen sixties they
accounted for only three percent of the UK market. But
as mentioned, nowadays that percentage is almost the inverse, accounting
(24:57):
for almost ninety six percent. So yeah, a journey, Yeah,
a real journey. In nineteen ninety two, Tetley Tea launched
a round tea bag.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
It's just another it's just another type of flat envelope shape.
It was just a marketing thing, but they were like,
oh ours is round. It's yeah, but yes, uh, Tea
bags are growing in popularity and partially because they are
(25:33):
growing higher in quality and because of marketing gimmicks. For example,
that Saudi company that made that dang giant tea bag
as it did it as a marketing stunt for putting
out non CTC tea bags like whole leaf tea bags.
And there's a lot of there's a lot of innovations
(25:53):
in the industry, you know, like they're they're definitely the
Some of the market ports say that those pyramid tea
bags are going to be even more popular in the
future because they a feel fancier and be A lot
of companies are trying to switch away from the non
biodegradable materials to something a little bit more friendly for
(26:14):
our bodies and or the planet.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
So yeah, yeah, that's what I read too. Uh, We're
going to see a lot more fancier tea bags perhaps.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I you know, I I love I love getting a
box of tea bags. I mean, I love tea in general.
I love herbal teas, I love the whole shebang. I
love making a pot of tea. And I've got I'm
one of those humans who has collected an improbable amount
of tea, Like I should really be drinking more of it.
If I am going to insist upon continuing to buy it,
(26:52):
you know, it's not. It doesn't last heck and forever.
So uh but yeah, it's just nice. It's nice. It
is nice. It's like a nice little treat. And a
bag does make it really convenient to just make one cup,
it does?
Speaker 1 (27:10):
It does?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
I mean an easy pour over infuser made of like
wire mesh is also very easy.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yeah. I had to resist from researching that because I
was like that, it's.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Not nope, nope, No, we're talking about today, Nope.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
For today. I also had to resist looking up all
the different ways people use tea bags as like a
like for their face, oh oh, like for cooking. But listeners,
let us know, oh yeah, let us know if you
(27:47):
have any of these uses for tea bags or just
your thoughts, just your thoughts in general.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Yeah. Oh, if you're one of those humans with very
strong tea opinions, we would love to hear them.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
We would, we would. But that is what we have
to say about tea bags for now.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
It is. We do already have some listener mail for you, though,
and we are going to get into that as soon
as we get back from one more quick break for
a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
And we're back Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you, and
we're back with listeners.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Name t tea.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
It just both went to like a small happy place,
we did.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
I was imagining the reading the book and the fog
outside and having the tea goodness our road. In about
our recent episodes on Kanye and Chilula. Kangnac is an
interesting alcohol and is fairly versatile. It is enjoyable as
(29:07):
an after dinner or later evening relaxing drink, especially in
the winter if you're sitting by a fire, something about
a comfy chair not a Monty Python reference, and a
nice fire in the fireplace, a glass of cognac and
a good book. Pets sitting on the floor snoozing as well.
Not something I generally keep around, but if I buy
(29:28):
a bottle it will be with some recipes and some
drinking in mind. I find it really works well in
some desserts. Chilula is one of my favorite hot sauces.
I myself would classify it as I must have on hand.
The original has a nice, gentle touch of heat as
well as a bunch of flavor. It mixes well with
(29:51):
so many things and can be used in so many
different sauces. It is almost like a mother sauce to
start with. I discovered a while back. If you like
wet buffalo wings, make them with chilula in the sauce
and it just hits so right. I know several people
who have done this, and we all think that the
chilula wings are better than the regular buffalo wings. Always
(30:14):
look forward to what you will be getting out. Always
starts cravings and as more things to the feast. Okay,
I have to say, I don't think we mentioned this
in our previous listener mail that was about Chilula, but
we had our super producers stepped in, yeah and offered
(30:36):
a lot of opinions about the best kind of Chilula.
A lot of fans in the savorty.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Yeah yeah, yeah. Super producer Andrew prefers that hot Habernaro,
the one with the with the pineapple in it. Yeah.
But pretty much every single human who who I mentioned
that episode to was like, oh, yeah, that's my favorite
hot sauce brand.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Yeah. And I feel like we've gotten a lot of
emails that are essentially this is my it's my go to,
yeah kind of what I was saying, where I have
my others, but like if I just need a hot sauce,
like a nice not too hot, but like nice, garlicy
salty chilula.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
And yeah, I still don't have a lot of experience
with Kangnac, but this sounds lovely right Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, No, I really, I mean, we are moving very
rapidly towards spring here at Atlanta. But yeah, need to
need to find need to like do some research, find
a bottle, look up some dessert recipes for it, for sure.
I've definitely never cooked with cognac before, and now now
I'm really curious about it because right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, I bet, I bet that would be delicious. Another
another experiment, something to try.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Ben wrote, hope you're both well. I had to write
to you again to comment on two recent episodes, Yax
and Irish soda Bread. I have never heard of caraway
seeds or raisins being used in soda bread here in Ireland.
The only additional ingredient you tend to find in soda
bread here is guinness. Here it seems to be eaten
in only two circumstances. One for breakfast, either toasted or untoasted,
(32:29):
with generous amounts of Irish butter, usually the wheaten variety
whole wheat yeah. Two accompanying seafood showder, again with generous
amounts of Irish butter, usually the Guinness bread variety. I'd
also like to say a special thanks for bringing in
Irish history in an honest but not too depressing way.
(32:49):
I find the history of the famine is still not
understood properly in the UK, so always good when it's
discussed well, I think I mentioned in an earlier email,
but my fiance makes a sweet version of guinness bread
that includes treckle, making it much richer and darker, but
still has to be eaten with Irish butter. Come to
think of it, I'm not sure soda bread is anything
other than a socially acceptable way to eat too much butter.
(33:13):
As for yas pet chops, here sell something called a yaka,
which is hardened yac cheese and dark puppy. Barren Oh,
named from the Tolkien character in the Cimillion, loves them
and they're meant to be very good for him and
his teeth. He certainly likes them more than a guinness
see attached before and after pictures.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
So cute.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Also, the name is great yes, yes, Oh, my goodness
faces beautiful. Yeah. That was so. Immediately after we finished
recording that episode about yas, I was like, how do
I go at yac cheese? I need to order some,
(34:02):
And the answer is essentially you can get it in
dog treats in the United States and that's it. There
are There have been a couple of like specialty cheesemakers
and ranchers around the US that have produced yac cheese
or restaurants that have imported yak cheese. But it's really neat,
(34:24):
it's really niche and difficult to find, which is such
a shame because I realized blatedly also that I never
really put like a like a like tasting notes in
the milk or cheese part of the yak thing. And partially,
I mean, you know, like we were talking about so
many different kinds of cheese, as it's impossible to give
a single flavor profile. But I saw the milk described
(34:48):
as like unexpectedly sweet and herbal like, like you know,
you get this like finish of all of these like
grasses and herbs, which makes sense because yaks are grazing
on different stuff than what most most of the rest
(35:08):
of the world of dairy drinkers are used to used
to their bow vines from grazing on.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
So yeah, maybe one day, yeah, yep, just need to
go hug some yaks and eat their products. Also, any
(35:35):
excuse to eat a lot of butter? Oh and I understand.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Yes, certainly not no, uh yeah, And I might have
forgotten to mention the Guinness, the Guinness Setta, Ginnessetta breads,
M did I I don't have no idea. It was
so long ago.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Who can remember. Certainly we've ever done an episode on tea,
but some listeners have written in with recipes. I'm I'm
thinking on my I might try, I might try.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Yeah, yeah, time to make a comeback from my last
not great attempt, but yeah, oh.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Gosh, and this with the seafood chowder right sounds so good?
Oh no, no, mm well, Thank you so much to
both of these listeners for writing in. If you would
like to write you as you can, Our email is
hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
We're also on social media. You can find us on
Blue Sky and Instagram at savor pod, and we do
hope to hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from my heart Radio, you can visit
the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our super
producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
(37:08):
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way.
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Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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