Flasks

[ylop]

Mrs Ylop has a problem. She has a pathological requirement for tea, and is quite particular about it.

I asked her if there was anything she would change after a recent two week cruise. Apparently the flask gives a metallic taste to the tea. Any normal human would live with this - but see the opening para! If she was normal she probably wouldn’t put up with me - so clearly I need to find a better tea solution.

The aim is to have a flask that comes up to the cockpit so she can service her addiction without needing to go below in any kind of swell.

We use a stainless steel flask, I think if you keep tea in them ready made they all do this thing where their metal taints the tea. One solution would be just to put water in the flask but then you are faffing in the cockpit with teabags and milk etc.

Has anyone found a steel flask that doesn’t do this - perhaps some sort of Teflon lining inside the s/s?

Or presumably historically, people managed with glass flasks - we have other glass on board (but not in cockpit underway) so perhaps I’m being paranoid not having a glass flask? Are the jug style flasks (usually found in offices) a better idea because they won’t tend to roll around so much?

Other suggestions to keep tea officianados happy at sea?

 

[harvey38]

I can remember, even as a child that tea from a flask is not nice, in early days there was nothing else available other than a glass flask, I tried again only recently using a stainless steel flask and it tasted horrible. I think it is more to do with the tea being kept over long long periods of time rather than what it is kept in.

Maybe Mrs ylop could take to gin? At least ice keeps for long periods in a flask and tastes the same hours later......

 

[Motor_Sailor]

Just put boiling water in the flasks (after pre-warming them) and then make tea with a tea bag and add the milk when you want it.

It then doesn't stew or attack the stainless steel and is indistinguishable from normal. Tea and coffee are actually better brewed from slightly off the boil temperature water. The diktat to only use freshly boiled water was a colonial / army instruction to try and reduce stomach problems with water of dubious origin or storage.

 

[Cardinal]

The problem is not as described. The problem is the crew‘s reluctance to go below and make tea whenever required.
Solutions might include your deigning to descend for the purpose or else dosing Mrs Y with Stugaron so that she can do so.

 

[Sandy]

Flask tea is the work of the devil. A fresh brew in a proper tea pot is always required.

 

[ylop]

The problem is not as described. The problem is the crew‘s reluctance to go below and make tea whenever required.
Solutions might include your deigning to descend for the purpose or else dosing Mrs Y with Stugaron so that she can do so.

she usually has a sickness patch on it it’s bad enough for me not to go below for tea! Sadly gin usually aggravates that!

Just put boiling water in the flasks (after pre-warming them) and then make tea with a tea bag and add the milk when you want it.

But then we end up with used teabags in the cockpit, another flask for milk etc.

I can remember, even as a child that tea from a flask is not nice, in early days there was nothing else available other than a glass flask,

Oh.

 

[Tranona]

When you have fitted your autopilot you will have no excuse about going down below to brew a fresh pot.

 

[LittleSister]

Flask tea is the work of the devil. A fresh brew in a proper tea pot is always required.

The taste of tea changes if you keep it hot (as in a flask) regardless of any effect off the flask material. The effect of glass and stainless steel on the tea is likely to be negligible.

You need, I think, to make the tea making arrangements below deck as simple and quick as possible, or have some arrangement for tea making in the cockpit.

Alternatively, Mrs. Ylop needs to find another drink she likes to have on board instead of tea.

 

[VicS]

You cannot make decent tea with water than has been stored in a flask ... it must be boiling. That idea is a non starter
2 solutions :

• Make the tea ( in a pot ) and store without milk in a proper glass vacuum flask. It does mean a separate supply of milk though
• 
  
• Drink coffee. We used instant at sea but one of these in harbour

 

[veshengro]

My cruising Dinghy is equipped with my home made version of one of these. I use a Trangia spirit burner in mine. Roger's is his self made Rolls Royce version. When not in use as a galley, it can be an extra seat or stepping stool. Just stow it below and when you need a brew, just haul it up into the cockpit and it's tea time.

 

[johnalison]

You cannot make decent tea with water than has been stored in a flask ... it must be boiling. That idea is a non starter
2 solutions :

• Make the tea ( in a pot ) and store without milk in a proper glass vacuum flask. It does mean a separate supply of milk though
• 
  
• Drink coffee. We used instant at sea but one of these in harbour

The ‘correct’ temperature to make tea is usually given as between 85 and 95 according to type. Boiling hot tea is now considered to be an old-fashioned idea that limits its flavour. Flask tea for me is just a hot brown liquid to be consumed when sailing above F6 and not to be confused with the real thing, though I agree about adding milk later, unless you actually like the taste of boiled milk. An old Thermos flask would be glass and taint-free. Ideally, I would use it for hot water only and make tea fresh but there are times when it pays not to be fussy, so long as it isn’t that Yorkshire muck.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I would, as others have suggested, keep hot water in the thermos and then use it with Chinese tea in an infuser mug. But I'm not keen on Indian tea, and rather got the taste for Chinese tea from my late wife. An infuser mug has the advantage a) that several cups of tea can be made with the same leaves (this is usual with Chinese tea; connoisseurs appreciate the subtly changing taste) and b) the tea-leaves can be disposed of over the side as they are organic matter.

Of course, Chinese tea is drunk without milk or sugar; I regard milk as an abomination in tea of any kind.

 

[johnalison]

I would, as others have suggested, keep hot water in the thermos and then use it with Chinese tea in an infuser mug. But I'm not keen on Indian tea, and rather got the taste for Chinese tea from my late wife. An infuser mug has the advantage a) that several cups of tea can be made with the same leaves (this is usual with Chinese tea; connoisseurs appreciate the subtly changing taste) and b) the tea-leaves can be disposed of over the side as they are organic matter.

Of course, Chinese tea is drunk without milk or sugar; I regard milk as an abomination in tea of any kind.

I enjoyed the tea when I was in Assam and drank it black. When I got home I started that way but reverted to normal after a few days for Assam and most other teas. Just a personal preference. I got the taste for green tea after a recent holiday abroad but at teatime drink black, Indian or Chinese, both with milk I'm afraid, if it means I have descended even further in your judgement.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I enjoyed the tea when I was in Assam and drank it black. When I got home I started that way but reverted to normal after a few days for Assam and most other teas. Just a personal preference. I got the taste for green tea after a recent holiday abroad but at teatime drink black, Indian or Chinese, both with milk I'm afraid, if it means I have descended even further in your judgement.

Chacun a son gout!

 

[AngusMcDoon]

It's not the stainless steel that gives the tea a foul taste, it's the gunk inside the flask that tea leaves behind if it has milk in it that you can't clean off because it's inside the flask. Better (but not perfect) is to put the milk in when you consume it, and start with a clean flask by using flask cleaner to get all the crud out...

Thermoclean Flask Cleaner 4 Pack

 

[fredrussell]

I’ve always fancied a Jetboil. Stick it in a gimballed cup holder and jobs a good’un.

 

[PaulR]

my wife is also tea focused, i have claimed others think our boat is steam propelled because of the constant kettle boiling and have been encouraging her without success to keep her tea water in a pump action flask to save the repeated kettle boiling. My chances of ever winning this debate with her have just been ruined based on this post - oh dear!

 

[Refueler]

I have one of those large Pump Flasks .... when we boil kettle - I always do enough to also top up that flask. Then whatever weather / heel of boat etc. - we can always make tea or coffee as wished.

Its not metal so no taint taste. Its plastic with glass internal .. but not as fragile as the old Thermos we know of yesteryear !!

 

[Minerva]

Our tea routine is; stick on auto helm, go down below, put kettle on the hob, have a wee (and wash hands!), wash cups out, two tea bags in the tea pot and milk in the clean cups. Fill teapot and place in cockpit floor on a nest of ropes. Cups go in cup holder, two biscuits on cockpit bench, return to cockpit. All the while the sea sick prone person "keeps a lookout" often from under a blanket...

I'm with your wife on this; tea has no place anywhere near a thermos flask.

 

[Babylon]

I've given this a lot of thought on behalf of the OP and his wife, and the best idea I've got so far is for them to rename their boat Teacup then keep a close eye on the weather forecast...

Actually, on a technical note, I drink a lot of tea, Ceylon lightly brewed to an amber colour and without milk. It doesn't matter what receptacle one uses - ceramic, double-skinned s/s pot, vacuum - the tea will always go a bit bitter by itself after a while.

The only sensible and civilised solution therefore is to brew fresh, and put up with the minor inconvenience of either dropping down below for the ritual preparation, or keeping a flask of hot water etc in the cockpit and crumbling the odd spent teabag (effectively organic material) into the briny to propitiate Neptune.