I read about it in a James A Michener novel, I can't remember which one; it doesn't matter anyway: they're all magnificent. It's like the White Ox of tea.
I read about it in a James A Michener novel, I can't remember which one; it doesn't matter anyway: they're all magnificent. It's like the White Ox of tea.
Joined Oct 2012
3K Posts | 725+
Crab Key
Been drinking a different tea almost every lunchtime. Most indistinguishable, some excellent, very few bad. Problem is I can't remember the names of the good 'uns.
As long as you don't pollute it with milk and sugar you can't go wrong. In China it's like wine: everyone's a tea expert and there are thousands and varied.
Joined Aug 2007
11K Posts | 3K+
Pomona NY
Read a great book by a guy who walked across China visiting tea plantations. He explained how tea came to the UK. Apparently when ships came back from China emptied of all the opium they dumped there, they required ballast for the return trip, so they loaded the ships with giant Chinese vases that later became very popular in British parlors, but the vases weren't sufficient so some brilliant merchant turned the English onto the idea of tea and sold them vast amounts of it to fill the vases for sufficient ballast. Of course the Chinese were getting over on the English because the "tea" they shipped was all the tired old leaves and twigs that would normally be thrown out in the trash heap (surely a contributing factor to the brown color of many sets of British teeth), as the Chinese only drank health giving fresh Green Tea!
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Paul Theroux took the train, one of the best books I ever read. The China he found isn't there anymore but it helps you to understand modern China.
Joined Apr 2011
1K Posts | 87+
Pangea
Joined Oct 2012
3K Posts | 725+
Crab Key
20+ years ago I went to the site of the Oolong plantations. Second picking. 1st picking (all 10 kg of it) goes to The Party.
Good stuff though.
Joined Oct 2012
3K Posts | 725+
Crab Key
Yes! ...or Cantonese cuisine in general. Guangdong is the place to eat in the Middle Kingdom.
Joined Apr 2011
1K Posts | 87+
Pangea
Yes looking forward to some good cantonese cooking when I get back to Hong Kong next week....best of the Chinese styles - but I am a bit biased.
Joined May 2009
6K Posts | 4K+
Shovel's Club
Joined Feb 2008
3K Posts | 470+
Outback Steakhouse
Struggling to get a decent cup here....
1. Ask for cup of tea
2. Get some form of cold brown water with ice cubes in it
3. Ask for hot tea
4. Get asked with a strange expression on their face...hot tea ?
5. Yes a cup of hot tea
6. Get cup with tepid water and a tea bag
7. Ask for milk
8. Get cream
9. Ask for milk again
10. Get a pint of milk in a glass
11. Order coffee next time
Joined Mar 2006
1K Posts | 71+
US
Well no he wouldn't be fourth if they did it tomorrow. It would be a bike he is not used to...
Who knows what would happen if he were acclimated to the bike. I still think he beats all but three guys on equal bikes. The bike alone doesn't run up front and win or contend for wins consistently, especially against the current top guys. See riders like Nicky, Dovi, and Colin. Had factory bikes, not a whole lot done with them.
If those MotoGP fan will be lost if no ROSSI then they don't deserve to be MotoGP Fan. You like MotoGP becuase of the sports not becuase of the person. That person make the sports much more beautiful. So Rossi to me will be remember as a Legend who created record and some love him some hate. Simple as that. He gone we look forward toward other. Many may not go for Lorenzo and Marc cause they beign seen as enemy to ROSSI. Well vote for Pedro and Ian then. They still great person and someone high potential. Therefore I still believe there may need some time for adjustment but ROSSI will not be the culprit who kill the sport. He himself love MotoGP that is why he created so much record.
Joined Oct 2006
25K Posts | 4K+
Your Mom's House
Ok my friend, then give him the whole off season and the whole season (don't know why you're trying to nit pick saying he'd need some time) it's rather obvious what I'm getting at. I'm trying to get you to consider the artificial condition that we often fall for, which i think has convinced you and many Rossi is the fourth fastest, but I figure it's because he is on 1 of the 4 fastest bikes. Yet for 2 years he was no where near the front. Was he not the 4ths fastest then?
I've asked you to consider him running a Ducati or Suzuki, but you keep trying to shift back the parameter (obvious to advance your posotion, which I've seen before by others when I've posed this question) setting this condition so as to free us from the this ideation that has been set artificially. So again, if Rossi would have ran a Suzuki or Ducati ( giving him time to acclimate for say 6 months, would that satisfy you) then according to you, Rossi comes in 4th this year in any given race? Maybe even challenges for the title, as we saw this year? Im talking consistently, because Rossi is so good, he would have taken a non-RCV or non-M1 factory bike to 4th? Thats what you believe?
No, the question is NOT if all bikes are equa, that's not what I'm asking, I've specifically framed the question this way. Because I think it's ridiculous to condition ourselves to think Rossi is the 4th fastest while at the same time recognizing, as I am assuming you do, that there were 4 bikes head and shoulders above the rest--as we all should have starkly understood from the Valencia display. In fact if each of the factory M1s/RCVs bikes could all start from the back and they would all end up 1 2 3 4. No doubt!
Had Rossi stayed at Ducati for 5 years do you think the 5th year when undoubtedly he would be finishing outside the top 10 or outside the top 8 you would have declared that he was fourth fastest? I seriously doubt it. And that's what happens to many of us who are conditioned to believe the finishing order has less to do with the parity.
And let's not pretend Nicky, Dovi, and Edwards had carte blanche to challenge as the number one rider. Even the year Nicky won he was on an Evo. Edwards was happy being Rossis ...... No, not while their teammates were Rossi/Pedrosa, who had all the political clout during their stint. If anything should have been apparent to you these last two weeks, politics makes a big difference, if not all the difference!
So again, if Rossi were on a Ducati or Suzuki, everything else the same, (given enough time to get used to it, etc.) where does Rossi finish in your estimation?
Edit: by far one of the best lines I've ever read on this forum, was from JKD, in response to a member starting a thread, 'the next step for Ducati is an alien, to which JKD retorted: "the next step for an alien is a factory Honda or Yamaha.
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