All of this information comes from Rajini Rao , a very smart lady on Google+.

• The Science of Tea: For 4,700 years, this infusion from the tender leaves of Camellia sinensis has been delivering a cupful of healthy antioxidants and good cheer. Did you know that tea is the most widely consumed beverage, after water? To celebrate the birthday of +Siromi Samarasinghe , who has a PhD in tea chemistry, here is some chemis-tea.

• Caffeine : Did you know that weight for weight, dry tea has more caffeine than coffee? But because more coffee is used per cup than tea, brewed tea has significantly less caffeine (~90 mg/250 ml).

• L-Theanine: A rare amino acid (γ-glutamylethylamide), found almost exclusively in tea, it has a calming effect on the brain. Theanine suppresses the stimulation by caffeine of brain excitability, reduces blood pressure and protects against neuronal cell death. It is a structural analog of glutamine, which is a byproduct of glutamate, the main excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain. Theanine inhibits the transport of glutamine and dampens neurotransmission.

• Catechins: Up to 30% of dry weight in tea, catechins are a type of antioxidant also found in chocolate and wine (Mmm..). Catechins are classified as flavonoids and have been shown to reduce the risk of stroke and cancer.

There are many other antioxidants and polyphenols found in tea. Tea is best drunk in company, but if you are alone, you can still have a tea party:

I had a little tea party
This afternoon at three.
‘Twas very small-
Three guest in all-
Just I, myself and me.

Myself ate all the sandwiches,
While I drank up the tea;
‘Twas also I who ate the pie
And passed the cake to me.
-Jessica Nelson North

[Me again: The best part of this post, all of which is pretty fantastic, is that I learned there’s a PhD in tea chemistry! That’s brilliant.]

A couple of unrelated, but no less lovely, links to start your week.

TEA

Matt Harbowy (who is a tea chemist because that’s a thing) says that dunking your tea bag doesn’t steep your beverage any faster . Also, as long as the tea is fresh, it doesn’t matter if it’s in a bag or loose.

A nice gift for a tea-lover would be this handy mug that lets the person making your tea know how you like it with Pantone style colours inside the rim.

[Bonus info to me from the article is that “red wine typically leaves the skins in, and white wine typically takes the skins out, and both can be produced from the same red grape. “]

& FONTS!

For font lovers, like myself, it can be infuriating (I originally typed ‘infurianting’, which I think is the type of incoherent ranting you do when infuriated; it is now a word, my friends) when people misuse fonts. HOW can they not see that 85 different fonts looks shit when on the same page? HOW can they not know their cyan-text-on-rainbow-wallpaper website is going to make blood shoot out of their readers’ eyes? Spread this wisdom far and wide: A Non-Designer’s Guide to Typefaces and Layout

[Bonus! dafont is full of both free and paid fonts. Congratulations, you’ll never accomplish anything ever again, as you’ll never be capable of choosing between your 900 fonts. Join me in Hell.]

Wrapping up the series of posts about tea and biscuits, I present Professor Elemental and ‘Cup of Brown Joy’.

Bonus!

Most of the time the local World Market stocks my favourite biscuit, McVitie’s Rich Tea, but occasionally they run out.

They then carry something called Balacha Marie Cookie, which I thought may work in a pinch.

I was mistaken.

They taste very much of vanilla, which is fine, but not what I’m looking for in a biscuit. They’re very light and delicate, which is also fine but see previous statement. It’s like trying to eat paper. Tissue paper.

Here is a side-by-side comparison:

The nearest thing I can compare the Marie biscuits to are Nilla wafers. Eating them only made me want banana pudding.

Thanks for tuning in for this series on tea and biscuits for Americans. Have a cuppa for me.

Last Sunday I reviewed Pepperidge Farm’s chocolate variety pack. This week, I’m doing the ‘Classic’ variety.

Some of from the chocolate pack are in the classic pack, as well.

For example, the Milano chocolate. There are not Milano double chocolate, though.

The biscuits that are only in the classic pack are:

Chessmen: Rectangular biscuits with chess characters on. They’re sort of shortbread but more buttery on the front. The taste reminds me somewhat of the cornbread you can find in the American South. Unfortunately, I’m not a fan.

Pirouettes: Lovely, light, crunchy tubes a couple inches long (when you buy them on their own, they’re a couple inches longer), but useless for dunking. They would be mind-blowing if coated them in chocolate and carmel so you could drink tea through them a la TimTams .

Bordeaux: These are single versions minus the chocolate and are a favourite in our house. Perfect for dunking, they hold their integrity but melt beautifully once you bite into them.

Speaking of melting, Archway shortbread cookies are gorgeous. They take a quick dunk and then the entire biscuit goes into your mouth and dissolves into beautiful tasty loveliness. I prefer these to Walker’s shortbread, much to my own surprise.

Archway also has Windmills , which my husband loves. They’re made with molasses and almonds, neither of which I’m crazy about, but their texture is nice and maintains integrity upon the dunk.

The Archway that both K and I love are their Ginger Snaps , which take a slightly longer dunk, and are gorgeous. They’re bite-size so you don’t have to worry about dropping crumbs everywhere, either.

Of the biscuits in this experiment, the clear winners were the non-chocolate Bordeaux from Pepperidge Farm and the Archway Shortbread and Ginger Snaps. Well done, you!

Living in the States is nice in some ways (infinite parking!) and not-so-nice in others (strangers talk to you in public), but one thing that I need in order to maintain a sense of sanity is a decent cup of tea and some British biscuits . American biscuits are fantastic, don’t misunderstand, but they don’t go with tea for shit.

There’s a World Market nearby, which carries some McVities products, but it’s still quite a drive away and on the expensive side. Most regular stores carry Pepperidge Farm cookies, though, so we’re giving those a go for you, dear reader. (They call them ‘cookies’ and though Pepperidge Farm does make traditional cookies, the products reviewed here would be more accurately billed as British biscuits.)

So if you’re desperate to find a decent bikkie in the States or would like to have an informed opinion about the differences between biscuits and cookies, read on.

This week we’re trying the chocolate variety pack. [Next week will be the ‘classic’ pack.]

There are two types of Milano cookies. Each has two oval, light biscuits sandwiching rich chocolate. One type has twice as much filling at the other. Both are lovely and crispy, though neither absorbs tea well and can only stand the briefest of dunks before falling apart.

Orleans Two round biscuits with chocolate in the middle. Extremely similar to Milano. The biscuit is the same, except slightly thinner. The same rich chocolate in the middle. Very nice. Still structurally weak, but a bit better than the Milano due to shape, I think.

Geneva: Oval biscuit, one side of which is covered with chocolate and pecan bits. These are tricky. One on hand, the biscuit part is solid and the chocolate is thick. It’s not going to crumble easily. On the other, there are pecan bits on the top, which you don’t want in your tea, so you have to watch them carefully.

Lisbon: Round biscuit, half dunked in chocolate. This is the closest to a cookie in the bunch, though I’d still classify it as a biscuit. Do not let the seeming solidity fool you, though, it can only withstand a quick dunk before disintegrating. Fortunately, the entire biscuit can go in one bite and the chocolate and biscuit melt together wonderfully.

Tahiti: Two round, coconut-flavoured biscuits with chocolate between. Also very light, and it was fine. I’m not a big fan of coconut, so I can only report on texture, which is very similar to the Milano and Orleans.

Bordeaux: Chocolate between two rectangular biscuits. This is as close to a chocolate HobNob, texture-wise, as I’ve come across in the States. They’re not as structurally-sound, but they’re better than anything else I’ve tried. My personal favourite.

Normally you can Make Mine a Builder’s , but recently a Canadian friend recently sent us some tea from David’s Tea , which was lovely. We had Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble-wonderful for a cold. My husband loves the Pumpkin Chai. Orange Ceylon was undrinkable. Nothing we put in it made it palatable.

The lime gelato green tea, however, was incredible. And there’s the additional literary connection in that it used to be believed that drinking too much green tea would addle the mind. Sheridan le Fanu wrote a ghost story about it.