An Englishman's most important survival item: Tea

i'm not a big fan of tea, but i like to carry a couple of packets of suisse miss cocoa, or some homemade cocoa powder in a baggie.

i get some calories with the cocoa, and i like the taste more. it also fulfills my sweet tooth...
 
I love tea, and I prefer it neat (no milk/honey/sugar). I don't actually have any tea in my survival kits, but I always bring a little green tea with me when I go for more than a day in the woods.
 
I did a short "class" with some teens, kind of a wilderness primer as I was the only one on staff relied upon to have enough survival gear to support a platoon. This led to two running jokes, the first was "pack anything? oh yeah, we brought him!" the next came from the "if you are lost" section. "so I'm in a mall that I don't know, and I can't find my way out, I should light a fire right?"
 
A.W.U.K. said:
Powdered milk? Use condensed milk! You can get it in tubes like toothpaste tubes from Tesco. Until you've drunk a pint of piping hot, ultra-strong tea with condensed milk in you haven't lived.

On an ordinary hike I carry a small amount of milk in an old vitamin pill bottle. If it is likely to be a warm day you can stick it in the freezer the night before (leave some air space). It will have thawed out by the time you stop for a cuppa but still be nice and fresh.

Surely you can keep a couple of teabags in an old 35mm film canister? I believe you can still get them on ebay for around a tenner.
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ahhh, I'll stick with my coffee. half the thing is that I can happily drink it black, which cuts down on gear (I carry too much anyway, but at leat I try) plus I find the caffine helps to keep me awake on camps after going to bed at 1:00am the night before.

plus I don't have to worry about disposing of the teabags afterwards. although i did try instant tea once:barf:. never again.
 
Yeah, I know what you mean. I can enjoy coffee black as well, and often do, whereas I don't enjoy tea completely on its own. Unless it's a well flavoured one and then I don't really think it's tea.

Agreed on the instant tea - tried it once, never again.

I think there is as much caffeine in tea as there is in coffee though...
 
Per cup, coffee usually has about 2.5 times as much caffeine as tea. Obviously varies a bit between types of tea. I heart coffee.
 
Also a wet tea bag held on a wound will help stop bleeding.

Name of Remedy: Bleeding
Ingredients: black or plain Lipton tea in a bag do not use any kind of spice tea as they will burn and hurt like alcohol.
Instructions: When a cut has occurred immediately wash it. Then take one tea bag and immerse it in cold water till it is totally saturated.Hand ring about half of the water out and place the bag of the cut and apply mild pressure for at least 10 minutes. If the bleeding has not completely stopped repeat.I use this one all of the time and it works very well. I carry tea bags in all of my first aid kits.
 
Tea divides opinion a lot too...but in MY book it's got to be very strong Indian/Ceylon with milk and favourite honey.It's a real reviver mentally&physically.

Yorkshire Gold is a particularly good type that I came across on a trip to England,decent strength&gives you the option of hard or soft water use.
 
I keep tea and dry soup mix both. Sometimes a hot drink or hot cup of soup will give you lift you need to overcome obstacles. It may be just the lift your spirit needs to keep your body going.
 
foxyrick said:
I think there is as much caffeine in tea as there is in coffee though...
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I think the tea leaves themselves contain more caffeine, but because you dont use as much tea leaves as you do coffee grounds, the effect is that there is less cafiene in tea than coffee.

I use coffee from british army ration packs when I can, which i believe has more caffeine than normal anyway. I also have a liking for rocket fuel, which is very caffinated, has gurana extract for extra energy, and is probably the closest that instant coffee can leagaly get to illegal drugs. it is fun stuff, although you end up looking like a mix of this :eek: and this :D if you have too much.

I could be wrong.
 
Those 24 hour ration packs are handy things, I like to keep one in the car for emergencies. The tea bags in them are surprisingly good! :D
24hr-rations.jpg

http://www.surplusandoutdoors.com/ishop/877/shopscr408.html
 
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Tea, tea, and more tea! I drink entirely too much tea! My morning tea cup is a Munich beer stein, and I fill that twice, then keep it going all day. (But like beer, you don't get to keep it. I spend a LOT of time giving it back...)

"Taylor's of Harrogate's" Yorkshire tea (it's not for them wot's from Surry!) or their English Breakfast tea make perfect sense at home or in the woods! The first thing we do when we reach a camp site is get the water boiling while we put up the tent!

There is just something about the November rainy weather that screams Lapsang Souchang Extra Smoky blend from 'Baltimore Tea & Coffee.' Tea is so light weight that you can carry a week's supply and it still weighs less than your toothpaste!

For some reason I can no longer find Fortnum & Mason's Royal Blend. It used to be sold in all the department stores here in Japan, but no one has it now...

Stitchawl
 
<gulp .... ahhh> Tea is an antioxidant, can be drunk without milk or sugar (although sugar or honey is nice), has a calming effect - definately, even works on calming down a person who doesn't normally drink tea, can warm you up heating your core and can cool you down producing a light perspiration. Producing a cup of tea can be a psychological ceremony allowing thought patterns to re-group and therefore allow prioritization.
I now drink a combination of chi tea and breakfast tea (two teabags in same cup) and is a nice way to smell the roses.
We have stinging nettle tea, maleluka (tea tree) tea, pine tea, eucalyptus tea ...
I'm a supporter of tea in the PSK :D
 
I've always liked this quote -- only with this thread have I thought of it as a survival poem:

"We had a kettle; we let it leak:
Our not repairing made it worse.
We haven't had any tea for a week...
The bottom is out of the Universe.
"
— Rudyard Kipling
 
Gram for gram, some teas have more caffeine. But by cup, coffee has 2-3 times more.
Being in Japan, I get to drink a lot of green tea, which is a great healthy beverage. But being an Englishman, it can't beat the simple pleasure of milk tea with 2 sugars. I usually carry teabags (Any type of tea is fine, though I prefer Darjeeling) and condensed milk. The condensed milk is sweet enough that I don't need the sugar that I usually use with fresh milk, which saves a little space.
 
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