> RFDT really has nothing to do with Google groups. Google does provide a
> USENET interface, but I think it is misleading to refer to the group as a
> Google group. Kind of like using Google to search for Jing's Tea Shop and
> calling them a Google store.
>
> Good luck on the book,
>
> Blues
>
> "pgwk" yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
> news:1181177806.886162.283590@q75g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
>
>
>

>> RFDT was very helpful in my writing my book, which I had largely
>> completed many months before I joined the group but I found it very
>> valuable in fine tuning the mss. I show here all my references to it,
>> so you can see what I said and, please, if you have any concerns, let
>> me know. I've tried hard to make sure I don't rip anyone off but a
>> distinctive new problem in attribution and citations is that web site
>> materials are ephemeral. In many instances, I can't provide date, page
>> and author because it's disappeared or is buried deep in archives that
>> I can't locate now. I hope you sense my deep appreciation of the
>> group. Thank you, so much.

>

>> (From the Acknowledgements..........)

>

>> This is my first book that essentially is an Internet book. My
>> research relies on the Web-I estimate that I browsed 2-3 thousand
>> sites to find information, check facts, and get new ideas. 90%% of my
>> tea purchases are made online and otherwise I would not have been able
>> to buy most of the teas that I review. I drew heavily on the expertise
>> of the members of the Google USENET group rec.food.drink.tea who
>> provide insights and information that I could never otherwise have
>> found.

>

>>>From the main text............

>

>> I recommend that if you do get actively interested in great teas, you
>> sign up for the Google chat group rec.food.drink.tea. I find this a
>> very helpful forum that includes some highly knowledgeable discussions
>> of individual teas. I learnt more about Pu-erh from the enthusiasts on
>> it than from any other source. I also find it valuable as a reality
>> check. When I get interested in exploring some particular tea, I often
>> take a quick look at what the group participants are saying and what
>> their general degree of "buzz" about it is. They are also a very
>> useful guide to which suppliers-online, offline, producers and
>> wholesalers-that they find to be good and bad; they can and do say
>> things that I shouldn't in this book. The discussions are also a
>> constant reminder to me that my own opinions are just that. Tea is a
>> personal taste and there are a lot of people who enjoy what I think
>> are boiled tree bark, spiced up mouthwash, or compost heap. Equally,
>> there are many who share my tastes but have far more sophisticated
>> knowledge of, for instance, China whites. I could masquerade as an
>> expert on Baihao oolong and which suppliers to buy it from, just by
>> synthesizing the group discussions. There is, of course, also plenty
>> of verbiage and chat that drifts and doesn't add up to anything
>> interesting and useful, but all in all this is among the best
>> information resources that I have found on the Web.

>

>> .......

>

>> It is fun reading the terms that Pu-erh connoisseurs use to describe
>> them. These examples are taken from the Google group
>> rec.food.drink.tea, which I recommend to anyone who becomes seriously
>> interested in tea. I am amazed by the enthusiasm and knowledge of the
>> Pu-erh lovers who provide their analyses. Here are a few from online
>> reviews: "3rd steep 45 seconds: wood, mulch, touch of damp basement";
>> "there was just a hint of a wet laundry thing here"; "I've come to
>> appreciate the rancid taste in more recent shu than the coffee taste
>> in something more mature... I mean rancid as in ashy, fishy, moldy";
>> "Don't bother with their breaking it up with a hammer instructions. I
>> find it's much easier it to pry it apart with a knife."

>

>> ........

>

>> As support for my classifying Matcha as a Maybe, rather than a Luxury
>> Zowie, which is how enthusiasts rate it, let me quote comments from
>> the Google tea group that I find useful in getting a sense of how tea
>> lovers far more knowledgeable than myself judge individual products
>> (rec.food.drink.tea):
>> "Also you should be aware that the quality of Matcha varies greatly.
>> Most of the Matcha sold outside of Japan is very poor grade. It often
>> does not produce a nice froth, and sometimes is even slight brown, as
>> opposed to a rich pea green. To get good Matcha, you need to shop at a
>> good Japanese market, preferably one that sells other supplies used in
>> the tea ceremony." (Oeufs, anyone?)
>> "Either Matcha is really unpleasant, or it is really unforgiving. Does
>> anybody know the proper ratio of powder to water, the correct temp to
>> brew it, the timing of the whisking action (before, during or after it
>> has had time to infuse) and other essential directions to ensure the
>> proper experience? All I've gotten out of it is very bitter and
>> vegetal green soup. Help!"

>

>> .........

>

>> One topic that I have not addressed so far is the issue of rebrewing
>> teas. Since caffeine is water soluble and rapidly released in the
>> first two minutes of infusion, then obviously there will be less of it
>> in a second or third brewing. The question is how much less.
>> Surprisingly, there is almost no discussion of this in either the
>> scientific literature on caffeine or that on tea. As I was quite
>> literally going through my final edit of the manuscript of Great Teas
>> I posted a query on the Google group Rec.food.drink.tea that I have
>> mentioned several times. At last I got the answer. I want to thank
>> "cha bing" for pointing me to an article with the exotic title of "Tea
>> preparation and its influence on methylxanthine concentration" that
>> appeared in Food Research International in 1996.

>

>> REFERENCES

>

>> These "endnotes" provide references to material that I directly quote
>> from articles, books and Web sites. This is part of the etiquette of
>> writing, that an author should cite sources and give credit to the
>> originator. That can be difficult with the ever-changing, evanescent
>> world of the Web. If I have inadvertently failed to give credit, I
>> apologize and will repair the error in later editions of Great Teas.
>> Where it is clear that an item is a cut-and-paste job that is on many
>> sites and where the original source is unknown, I do not feel obliged
>> to cite it. That is another huge problem on the Web in general and on
>> tea sellers' sites in particular.

>

>> Paula Murray, Fancy A Nice Cup of Dust?, Daily Record.co.uk, March
>> 27, 2007
>> liquidplanet.com/Yixing-p-1-c-42.html, and about 30 other Web sites.
>> Same exact wording on each site.
>> I do not list the company here, but it is national, offers some very
>> good teas, and ought to know better.
>> Wikipedia.org: "Tea sandwich"
>> George Orwell, A Nice Cup of Tea, Evening Standard, 12 January, 1946
>> Andrew Jefford, The Best Drink in the World, Financial Times,
>> October 28,2006
>> Actionaid.org.uk/_content/documents/teabreakreport.pdf
>> The newsletter has disappeared from the Web, There are many
>> available articles on Darjeeling intellectual property rights. The Key
>> term is "TRIPS."
>> teavilla.com/2004/07/bubble-tea.htm
>> O-cha.com, the web site of a company located in Iwaki-city,
>> Fukushima, Japan
>> Google group: rec.food.drink.tea; exact citation hard to provide,
>> because search engines do not pick up Group chat material
>> Ibid (Latin for "same as above")
>> Michelle Williams, Tea Trek, Nepal, Fresh Cup Magazine, March 2002
>> Rudra Kharda, 7 security personnel killed in Salyan, nepalnews.com,
>> June 2002
>> Ghoshal Sharma, Six Killed As Nepal Rebels Attack, Boston.com News,
>> March 6, 2006
>> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article656154.ece
>> Google group: rec.food.drink.tea
>> Wikipedia.org, Tasseography
>> holymtn.com/tea/greentea.htm
>> harvestfields.netfirms.com/Tea/Gtea/imperial_dragonwell.htm
>> Google group: rec.food.drink.tea
>> Business 2.0 Magazine, February 2007
>> Mark Moxon, India, Darjeeling, moxon.net/india/darjeeling.html, May
>> 1998
>> Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea, 1906
>> chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2002-02/08/content_106209.htm (2002) and
>> .recipezaar.com/recipes.php?q=Rosemary+Mint+Tisane
>> A long address:
>>http://66.218.71.231/language/translation/translatedPage.php?tt=url&t...
>> Google group: rec.food.drink.tea
>> Monique Hicks et al, Tea Preparation and its Impacts on
>> Methylxanthine concentration, Food Research International, Vol. 29,
>> Nos 3-4, 1996
>> Mira Kamdar, Planet India, Scribner, New York, 2007, pp. 136-142
>> Quin Yang, China to a Tea, Washington Post, May 18, 2007, page H5- Hide quoted text -

>
> - Show quoted text -