If you need to make more than just a cup or two of tea, you can brew it all at once (and keep it warm) by making it in a coffee pot.
We’re finishing off Takeaway Food Week by looking at a takeout option that you might not consider as a meal but which also often rewards a cautious approach: coffee.
In the height of summer, a cup of tea is often a more refreshing choice than coffee. Make sure your tea tastes optimal by pre-warming the cup, using leaves rather than bags, adding the milk second and following the most old-fashioned of rules: take the teapot to the kettle, not the other way around.
Don’t let a misplaced bottle opener stand between you and a delicious beverage. If you find yourself with well-chilled bottle of beer but painfully without a proper bottle opener, don’t despair. Bottled beverage-lovers at wikiHow have put together a detailed guide for getting that cap off with nothing more than a ring and your gritty determination. Check out the following video to see the magic in action:
There may be no such thing as a free drink, but having a quality cocktail doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, either. For those who appreciate good spirits but value a good bargain even more, the Serious Eats food blog suggests where to find deals at the liquor store, the bar, and for hosting parties. For example, set your sights on rum-based drinks to save a few dollars:
Portfolio magazine has a great guide to the realm of higher-end teas, with an introduction to different varieties and age-old wisdom (along with some new-age connoisseur-style advice) on how to best prepare and enjoy the lower-caffeine pick-me-up. I was surprised to see this tip amongst the offerings: Experts say that you should use boiling water for black tea. For more delicate green or white tea, Sebastian Beckwith, co-founder of the Connecticut-based specialty-tea seller In Pursuit of Tea, suggests letting the water cool for a few minutes. “You lose a lot of flavour if you put boiling water on white or green tea,” he says.
We’re obviously not big fans of making simple things more complicated around here, but if it improves your morning ritual, all the better. Gourmet Tea Guide [Portfolio]
The Wired How-To Wiki takes on the age-old art of bar tricks, detailing several impressive and death-defying techniques for impressing and making good when you’re out on the town this weekend. Some tricks are more jaw-dropping than others, but the obvious standout is the “Beer Money” trick, which details how to open a bottle of beer with nothing but a one-dollar bill—handy for those times you find yourself without a bottle opener. Of course if you’re short on cash, you can do the same thing with a piece of paper. Got a similar bar hack of your own? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
Ah, beer. Fans of the amber stuff may not wish to share their tipple, but according to the Wise Bread blog you can put beer to several uses in your garden – as a slug killer, and to help protect your garden visitors from bees.
Salt is a traditional slug-killer, but as the post says “that means you have to find them first”:
“Instead, entice them with a little beer, which slugs love. Simply pour a little into some empty jars and place them in the soil, with the rims of the jars at ground level. The slugs will drop in for a drink, but they can’t get back out. And what a way to go; Certainly better than the salt-shriveling death.”Bees and wasps are also beer fans, apparently. So if you’re entertaining outdoors, you can place some small containers of beer around the perimeter of your yard or garden, and the bees will flock to the sugary treat and leave your guests alone.
Photo by thesaint.
21 Great Uses for Beer [Wise Bread]
This time of year gives people great excuses to do silly things—spend far too much time shopping, go crazy decorating in red, and make and drink ancient cocktails. If you relish tackling that last tradition, Wired has a great guide to making all the classic concoctions, like eggnog, mulled wine, and Tom and Jerries, with variations and preparation tricks for each. As a bonus, you’ll learn the drinks’ origins and have at least one holiday party conversation starter locked down. For more drink recipes, check out the drink databases ExtraTasty and Webtender. Photo by decor8.
Make the Perfect Wired Holiday Party Drinks [Wired How To Wiki]When he caught a bad cold last month, blogger Henrik decided to multi-task and used the time he spent laid up to kick his three-cups-a-day coffee habit. (As if recovery wasn’t enough!) He hasn’t had a cup of coffee in 30 days now, and he says the change has made a big difference in his productivity. He says that now: I’m less prone to procrastination. I didn’t really notice it while I was drinking coffee but my mind seemed to wander off in all kinds of ways a lot of the time. Now it’s easier to single-task and focus on one thing and I don’t feel the same need to check email or other distracting stuff.
Not sure if there’s any actual scientific evidence that links caffeine and procrastination, but it wouldn’t surprise me. I quit caffeinated coffee about two years ago and I’ve also seen an increase in focus and decrease in tangents because I’m less jacked up on caffeine. (However, decaf coffee, tea, and most diet sodas, which I do drink once in awhile, do have caffeine, so I’m not off the stuff completely. Just no longer dependent on it to get me started in the morning.)
For more on how you too can kick the habit (sans Henrik’s flu), see Ask Lifehacker: Quitting Caffeine? (which got posted in Lifehacker’s Pre Comments Era), reader responses to the post, and more on the subject here and here.
How I Quit Drinking Coffee and the Benefits I’ve Experienced [The Positivity Blog]
