please empty your brain below

Alas - as a fellow "proper" tea drinker - I am totally empathic. The tea from our vending machines comes out "orange" - and we are not allowed to use kettles either. I'm toying with the idea of bringing a "thermos" of tea into work. Might score 6 out of 10 don't you think?

The alternative to Jag's answer is to buy one of those "vending machine" thermos flasks, the ones that will pump water on demand. (Seen in some cafeteria etc - big silver things with a pump on the top). They're not cheap, and they are bulky, but then you can bring in your own hot water, and simply make the tea at your desk without the hassle of kettles etc.

Something like this in fact. 1.9 litres should keep you in tea for a working day, surely? *grin*

Not being a tea drinker myself, i was wondering if you could just make your own tea at home and take it to work in a flask?
I don't know what it would taste like at the end of the day though.

Our disgusting tea-brewing machine is also kind enough to dispense hot water. Press * before entering the code and it even allows you to use your own cup!

Fill it up with this almost boiling water, drop in your own tea bag, and you're off. Nowhere near as satisfying as a nice big pot though, is it.

We have a similar attitude towards kettles which we finally got round by having a Occupational Health Visitor tell Facilities that the small tap which dispenses hot water (for which you have to press down hard to get a constant stream of water) was causing us pain in our wrists, elbows and shoulders. Their initial response was that we could buy tea/coffee in our canteen but at over £1.50 per drink, we protested even louder. Result...one kettle and one very moody FM Manager.

Well I shouldn't really comment as I still don't understand why people drink tea... but I can sympathise.

The coffee machine at my work seems to think that HOT drinks aren't really necessary, and would you mind having a cup lukewarm, partially diluted coffee granules?

Ick.

If it makes you feel any better dg, the "coffee" dispensed by those machines is just as bad. In fact, I usually have tea because ours will at least spit out hot water and I nick all the teabags from departmental meetings. The only remaining problem is the "sugar" button, which dispenses enough sugar in one cup to make my two-cup-sized mug of tea far too sweet.

I'm lucky enough to work in an organisation that provides all manner of hot and cold drinks and provides a kettle. However, as others have pointed out, does the coffee machine not dispense plain old hot water in which you can dunk your own Earl Grey?

Well - there might be machines that dispense hot water (not the coffee machine - but a dedicated hot and cold water dispensing machine) but the problem is that these dispense stale "hot" water - not "boiling" water. And as all proper tea drinkers know - you need just freshly boiled water to make a decent cup of tea.

There really is no subsitute for fresh cold water, kettle and a teapot.

The problem with using the hot water from a vending machine is that the water is not actually boiling; therefore the tea will never be as good as when made with a kettle etc.

You're in the wrong business, DG. At my place, one section of the staff wouldn't stand for not having decent tea-making facilities so not only do we have kettles in the kitchen but four types of tea (Normal, Earl Grey, Assam & Darjeeling) plus a choice between red, blue and green milk.

Actually, I think I'll go and brew myself a cup, right now.

All this 'health & safety' stuff is a lie. There are no rules against kettles. As witnessed by the fact that the kitchens at my workplace all have them and I work at a law firm. We'd know.

It is my deduction that excuses like 'because of health & safety' are a pernicious fraud that robs us of things we want and are perfectly legally entitled to have (e.g. nice cup of tea) and simultaneously give people the erroneous impression that regulation is strangling our lives and business.

It's not! It's stopping builders dying unnecessarily and boys having to crawl up chimneys and suchlike. It's the craven thoughtless people who can't think of a good reason to ply their evil trade of lazy thinking that are to blame.

See also my patented tirade on 'who the hell is the 'PC Brigade' that everyone's always complaining about?'.

Vending machine tea is the work of a coffee-drinking Satan.

A friend of mine claims "There is no such thing as a bad cup of tea. There are good cups of tea, and better cups of tea".

I think he's led a sheltered life.

They really have got you over a barrel, haven't they? You poor thing. I think we may have the very same drinks machine as you, but we also have a kettle, microwave (which no one ever cleans, so I don't use it), toaster, fridge (into which people put milk until it turns to cheese) and cupboards full of sachets; milk, cream, sugar, tomato sauce, brown sauce, mustard, salad cream, salt and pepper. No one ever uses the sachets.

I'm also on velvet. The ghastly building owners provide ersatz coffee and sawdust tea, but there is a kettle. And a toaster.

I've sorted out the problem (and general morale) by teaming up with a colleague to provide a coffee pot, freshly-ground coffee and milk that's worthy of the name.

Next step, Dresden china and a good selection of China and India teas. I wish.

I long ago came to the conclusion that tea is best made and drunk at home, or in places that specialise in it. I think your best bet is to get your teapot filled in the canteen - even if they charge 40p for the water, you might get up to 6/10 levels with the de-oxygenated water.

To leave you with a fine quotation from my "The Marquess of Queensberry's Selected Blend of China Tea" caddy:

"GOOD TEA When taken neither too warm, too weak, nor too sweet, is an excellent tonic bitter, mostly does good and never harm. If hungry, it is food - if sick it is medicine - it warms in Winter and cools in Summer. If you are weary it refreshes; if drowsy, it enlivens; if you are poor, it is not expensive, and if rich, it is very genteel."

Fine sentiments indeed.

hello.... first comment, and I'm afraid it's to brag! Fellow tea drinkers, you should all go and work at a trendy media company like I do - we have a braggio cappachino machine that also provides scalding boiling water, and a team of runners to provide for us! All I do is dial '0' and 5 minutes later (just long enough to steep properly) a lovely steaming brew arrives....

Tea indeed. Do you know what I had to drink with my workmates today when we had lunch?
Two pints of Guinness.

Curent job still has a tea lady who makes sure there is some left in the pot for me to have a second mug.

Demand to see the clause in the Health and Safety rules that bans kettles. The enforcers of these rules are usually jumped-up tossers who expect their pronouncements to be accepted unchallenged.

Possible Pedant
But wasnt it the Book that said that about the not quite tea?










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