Forgetting to Time Your Tea

Forgetfulness is not the exclusive province of the elderly. At least that’s what I keep telling myself, and thus am assured that being forgetful is not a sign of being over the hill. Many people — even some decades younger than me — forget things due to their busy lives, including attending to their children. I don’t have that excuse either. So, why do I often forget to time my tea? No idea, but I do know that it’s not a total disaster.

A big note on the teapot to remember to time the tea!

The good news is that forgetting to time your tea is not the end of the world. Nor does it mean that you have to dump the oversteeped tea down the drain (or water your garden with it). There are options:

If it’s a fairly strong black tea such as an Assam, you can add a bunch of sweetener and, if you are one who can stand milk in your tea, you can add some milk. That will take away the bitterness.
If it’s a green tea like gunpowder, I find that thinning it with some water heated to the proper steeping temperature helps.
A little lemon juice would be a help, with just the right amount of sour balancing out the astringency.
Ditto for a sprinkle of cinnamon or some other flavoring according to your particular taste. In fact, if you have typical chai spices on hand, turn your oversteeped tea into a spiced chai.
And then there are recipes where you can use strongly steeped tea in place of broth or water. Soups, stews, casseroles, baked goods, or more, are possibilities here.

Of course, the best cure is prevention. Time to implement a timer. Having a full set of fingers and toes, I nevertheless find using them as my instruments to keep track of the passing seconds and minutes for steeping to be a tad tricky. With so many timers available, from those shaped like mini hourglasses and filled with colored sand to high-tech apps for your iPhone or computer, timing your tea should be a no-brainer.

But, how do you remember to use the timer? Ah, as the Bard said, there lies the rub. You could enlist your spouse or other family member or a roommate to remind you, but who will remind them? This could end up being an infinite regression, like images in fun house mirrors, with Donny reminding Susie to remind Tiffany that she promised to remind Harry to remind you to set the timer when you steep your tea.

Hm… maybe a note on the teapot would be simpler.

A big note.

A big big BIG note.

Well, anyway, even if you forget to time your tea, you can save it with the options listed above. And don’t worry about your forgetfulness being due to old age. Blame it on insufficient sleep, your mind being occupied with deep thoughts, or some such excuse… uh, I mean legitimate reason.

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2 thoughts on “Forgetting to Time Your Tea”

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TeaGuide

I often time tea by activities. Walk out and get the mail, then sort it, is about right for Darjeelings, Nilgiris, and Nepals, as long as you don’t run into the mail lady and start chatting about gardening. Empty the clothes dryer, fold the laundry (includes chasing cats off laundry multiple times), and put it away for white teas. Empty the dishwasher and refill with last night’s dinner dishes: most black teas. Give our dog his morning hard-boiled egg and chunk of cheese: green tea. Works for me, and painlessly gets household chores finished :-).

January 27, 2012 at 10:24 am Reply