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