Forest BB

I was going to buy some more tea strainers but before I do... is it time for us to give up on loose tea? Pretty much everything we sell is in tea bags. Although a nice bit of proper tea is a lovely thing, is it worth keeping on the one or two loose teas that we have? They are messy and tea strainers are a hassle, an extra thing to wash etc.

I agree, let's get rid of the loose tea, or let's switch to tea infusers. It's especially annoying when a costumer orders a pot of green tea etc.

it's annoying?
but that's what tea IS!
tea bags are bad, maaan. extra paper (probably australian old growth forest), probably extra bleach, lots of extra electricity used, more expensive...
don't give up!

i'm with scout, it's good to be able to offer people a 'proper' cuppa sometimes. it's not too much more hassle. i would agree some nicer tea strainers may make the presentation nicer.

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I think the general disorganisation of the tea is one of the worst things about working in the kitchen. The way you have to search through all those boxes & jars to find the one you want is annoying enough. It's made worse when you've just agreed to get someone a cup of tea and charged them for that, only to find there is tea leaves so you have to change it to a pot. You then have to go and find a teaspoon to measure it out. Then sometimes the jar has no lid so you realise you are giving them tea that has been sitting losing its freshness & flavour for god knows how long.

It's also one of the more annoying things about washing up, having to deal with these leaves in the pot that can clog up the drains.

Things are slightly easier since we've been using less loose tea. I'm all for making things as easy as possible for vollies. I think that should be a priority. We shouldn't pretend to be a classy tea place when we clearly are not capable of being that, any more than we are capable of serving proper good coffee. The fact that we offer a wide range of different teas is good enough for me and beats most other places in the tea stakes.

I'd like to hear people's suggestions for how we can make tea less of a nuisance. In the meantime, I'll try to get some nice strainers if we're not ready to lose the looseness yet.

Sorry Niel, I strongly disagree.
this is a negative attitude that underestimates the capabilities of our lovely volunteers.

We are capable of serving a good cup of tea. It's not hard.

We should strive to provide the best possible service to our coustomers with regards to tea and coffee. We run a cafe, after all.

Not pretendeng to be a classy tea place, but providing a good range of good teas. I think you will find that the profit margin on loose leaf is higher than on bags, and what Scoutt said.

I hereby volunteer to sort out a "tea menu", with brewing instructions incuded.
And to rejar and organise the tea shelf. If we agree, I will do so by the 10th of Nov.
as far as, teas strainers goes, yes, those nice Tea Pots with infusers incuded (like these) would be nice, but might be seen as a an unesseccary expense.
otherwise a bunch more straners and we could realy do with a big box of Tea Spoons anyway.
we should keep a pot of spoons by the tea shelf.


Whist I am around for the next 6 weeks, I will offer a free weekly Coffee Training Session if people think its a good idea.

I think that one of the most valuable things that Forest does is offer people an opertunity to learn how to work in a cafe. These are basic cafe skills.

Thank you, and enjoy your tea.

?

looks niiiiice

Fix it, Nix. Make it better.

I got strainers today. More teaspoons is always good. Anyone want to scour the charity shops?

tip of the day: check the teapot before washing
if it contains bags/leaves, empty them into the compost! DOUBLE WIN!!

X

I quite liked the idea of those little wooden drawers that you might get from the likes of ikea. One tea stays in one place rather than the lottery it is at the moment.

You know as soon as you have run down and up the stairs to get the tea you couldn't find, the original will then mysteriously appear next to the coffee machine.

xJ

Nice idea, Jamie. Like!

Seems what we need is an apothecary cabinet (expensive), or 3 or 4 of these:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/mini-chest-9-draw ... 482wt_1156

Great Neil!

Can you order 3 of those 9boxes things from boxylady?
that would be grat and we can get on with the stramlining teasorting..

ooh, I do love a cuppa...

You guys are awesome

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cool, so I am wanting to organise the first, "tea & coffee preparation master class" for
Saturday 6th of November. 3-4pm

we can go over the basics of the coffee machine, the types of coffeedrink we offer, the best practice of preparation and tricks & techniques along with a look at the teas on offer and an understanding of what they are and how to prepare them.

Spaces are limited to 4 people each week.
There will be a sign up sheet in the kitchen.

are we down with this?

thanks.

right folks. "due to economic circumstances", it looks like we have to find a DIY, cheap, free solution to the tea storage situation. anyone got any thin ply and a wee bit of thyme?

cool, nix
can you do this first thing in the morning? saturday afternoons are usually busy and having 6 people clustered around the coffee machine may make KM heads explode...
x

point taken scoutt.

here is a rough poster, and due to the tasty challenge of having to invent a free/cheap boxing system, I'm gonna put it off a week ... so starting on sat the 13th from 10:30 to 11:30.

would anyone want to help me out with this and lead one of the sessions and/or collaborate with me on the 'handbook'? .. anyone got the skills? anyone wanna share em?

thanks.
N.

here is the rough rough start for the handbook.

thanks!

Can someone please print out the sign up sheet, in above post, and pin it in the kitchen.

thanks.
N/

I'll do that!
/g

i love this thread.

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up and at it.

I love tea and coffee and herbal infusions! feel the chamomile!

here is updated handbook. not at all finished please help!

see yous at the masterclass!

thanks!

That's amazing Nix, thank you !

The first masterclass war today and went well.. thanks to all who attended, the man who delivers the milk and Stevie who is the coffeemaster.