Coffee, should, nay!, must! be!, Strong, darker than a roasted,tarred&feathered nigerian with it's teeth knocked out and exhibited during a total solar eclipse. Although relatively little sugar for me; as I'm sweet enough naturally as I am already
Any sweeter and I'd have caused a drastic localized outbreak of type I diabetes simply by walking past people in the street
Luckily for everybody else round this neck of the woods I only rarely sweeten my coffee by more than a teaspoon of sugar.
For tea, it depends on what kind of tea I'm drinking at the specific time as to how I serve it. Never with milk, bovine juice just ruins tea or coffee, IMO to the point of being undrinkable. Black teas and oolongs, I like strong, black ones in particular, oolongs I usually only make each cup with a single tea bag; or single servings worth of loose tea, green, not a huge fan of green tea really, generally speaking. White teas are those I like best of all, with the exception of lady grey which is neck and neck with the current variety of white tea I have in my tea stash (yes, that particular stash is indeed tea, derived from Camellia sinensis, to fuel that most english of habits, a good brewski. With white teas especially though, I like mine without any sugar at all, but instead a mixture of a splatter of honey, preferably lime blossom, or if its not to be found acacia flower honey can suffice. And adding to the honey, a nice big fistful of lemon balm, the tender flowering tops being the best bits.
Adds a wonderful flavour of citrus, lemon-lime ish scent and taste, although unlike actual citrus fruit Melissa isn't sour or bitter, just flavoursome. Quite delightful when finely chopped up and steeped along with the tea as it brews, then fished out and dumped along with the tea or tea bag(s) when the tea is ready for drinking. Its also a gentle relaxant and soother, and to the utmost extent of my knowledge, it is free from the induction of tolerance or dependency or addictive properties. The effect is mild, and not in any way hazardous. Action is gently sedating, although not hypnotic, due to compounds that act as inhibitor(s?) of GABA-transaminase, an enzyme thats responsible for catabolysis of GABA, the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the CNS (GABAa receptors are the targets of benzodiazepines, valium, temazepam, moggies (nitrazepam, aka mogadon) etc. as well as barbiturates, valerian root, or the orthosteric GABAa agonist muscimol*, the primary sedative/psychotropic agent present in the fly agaric mushroom.
(An orthosteric ligand is one, be it agonist or antagonist/inverse agonist which binds the native neurotransmitter recognition site of the receptor/synapse , as opposed to an allosteric ligand, allosteric ligands bind the same receptor, but at a separate binding site from the actual neurotransmitter (for instance benzodiazepines, which like GABA, (gamma-aminobutyric acid) bind GABAa receptors, but unlike GABA, benzodiazepines, barbs/chlormethiazole/ and (probably) quaalude/methaqualone, Z-drugs like zopiclone, zolpidem (ambien) and the weapons-grade heap of steaming dog-jizz-saturated uber-shite otherwise known as zaleplon. GABA binds, unsurprisingly, the GABA binding site. Whereas the others have varying subtype selectivity, with the sole exception in the previous list of the orthosteric GABAa agonist muscimol, which obviously, whilst it binds in place of at GABAa and GABAc receptors, and has a fair go at mimicking GABA at GABAa and GABAc (otherwise known as GABAa-Rho, GABAc consisting of a homomeric receptor made up of the ϱ-subunit of the GABAaR heteropentamers, thats typically found in the eye, especially, as a homomeric GABA-binding receptor composed entirely of ϱ-subunits, not entirely sure, but IMO GABA-ϱ receptors are likey to be homopentameric ionotropic receptors, given the heteropentamer structure of the typical GABAa receptor types, which are built of a cyclic ring of 5 subunits, selected from a huge variety of subunit types, arranged in various different patterns,with different GABAa ligands binding between different selections of subunits, such as with a benzo, usually the selectivity is a 1, 2, 3 and/or 5 subunits, and a gamma, the benzodiazepine binding site is between two alphas, and a gamma subunit, whilst those bearing an alpha4 or alpha6 are benzo-insensitive but binds (ethyl, at least, but probably others)-alcohol, and neurosteroid GABA agonists like pregnanolone (not pregnenolone, pregnEnolone acts as an antagonist at GABAa neurosteroid-sensitive populations, or the synthetic neurosteroid agonists such as ganaxolone and others besides])
So the constituents within Melissa officianalis, mostly terpene(oid)s afaik, work to block degradation of GABA, which serves to give balm anxiolytic, calminative and soothing properties, good for those who find caffeine in tea a little much, and like a bit of its more jittery, pointier edges filed off, good too for stressed out folk who feel overloaded, stressed, out, with frayed nerves etc.
There are also compounds present, such as for instance rosmarinic acid, which have effects on the cholinergic systems, via modulation of nicotinic receptors in particular, and I think, although am not 100% certain of by any means, some inhibitory effect upon acetylcholinesterase, which lead, together to enlivening and robustly supportive properties exerted upon cognition and upon especially, memory.
Not to mention a pleasant helping of antioxidants. And even were it devoid utterly, of any and every trace of healing properties whatsoever, it would still taste absolutely fantastic used to flavor tea, lovely and perky and fresh and lively, and generally, all around pleasant as a culinary ingredient, but particularly IMO, coming into its own for tea. Makes quite a pleasant infusion on its own actually too, which definitely does benefit from a squirt of lime juice, and slice of lime, with its grated peel added, and a dash of again, honey, to sweeten it a little, and served hot, its very refreshing on a hot summers day. Can work well too (the plant, rather than the infusion) for the distillation of some pleasant spirits, the nature of which can be left up to the person preparing and consuming same, according to what the consumer likes in terms of personal tastes, with regard to the other herbs, fruits, spices etc. to be used in the creation of scent and flavor, rosewater makes for a nice base, after distillation of the raw spirit from over the chopped up balm and other botanicals, condensing the distillate and then making it up into something drinkable by dilution
(you don't want to drink 100% w/w EtOH, it burns like everfucking fury on the way down. Tasted some absolute (non-denatured, horribly expensive, although I get my pure ethanol from poland if ever I require some anhydrous EtOH but do not wish to spend the time and resources in fermentation, distillation, purification and then reflux with then further distillation over calcium oxide (quicklime) under a current of inert gas supplied through drying tubes, protecting the whole lot, flame dried glassware, dessicant tubes of quicklime, or calcium carbide and what have you. Still not exactly the cheapest solvent I ever use, not by a long way, but it isn't so repugnantly overtaxed in eastern europe, or poland at least, as it would be were I forced to buy local, or from chemical supply houses, rather than a human being who works for themselves, and works hard, and honestly too, so isn't terribly inclined towards taxation
Neither on being stolen from herself, or in robbi....taxation, applied to others. I'm sure she'd rather have me for a loyal customer than as a wallet in a pickable pocket; and at that, a loyal customer who feels great gratitude towards her, and shows his appreciation for the way, she has gone out of her way to ensure my satisfaction, and willingness not only to provide her services at a very fair price, good customer service, and especially for the vast range of hard to get reagents, some of them quite simply un-purchasable by those outside of academic and govt. owned/funded institutions through most any non-private individual suppliers, by which I mean those who themselves are fellow citizen scientists. This particular lady, she works for herself, and aims to please her clientele, and she does a thoroughly good job of it too, allowing me to buy anything that she herself is capable of obtaining, all the tricky stuff, like rare and exotic solvents, run of the mill, yet usually either on 'watch lists'
or unavailable to private individuals through mainstream supply companies, such as for example, white phosphorus, pyridine, lithium aluminium hydride and other powerful hydride reducing agents, like NaH, borohydrides, STAB, cyanoborohydride, etc. and the juicy end of things like powerful halogenating agents like phosphorus tri/pentachloride, thionyl chloride, phosphoryl chloride, sulfur oxychloride, alkylating agents like methyl iodide, dimethyl sulfate (ick!), and various misc. things that mainstream chem supply houses simply wouldn't dare allow a private individual to purchase.
Basically, anything goes. I don't doubt if I went to her and asked for something like 'hey, need several tons of ABC and XYZ for a huge bomb, hail the invisible flying spaghetti monster, and Eris be praised! bwahahahahahahaha!!!!' I'd get short shrift if I was a terrorist. But for people who aren't allah-sturbators and psychotic thugs in general, then its all well and good, just as long as shes getting legitimate custom, that is to say, those who do not wish to pervert the scientific arts by using them for the causing of harm towards, or oppression of others, if someone isn't engaging in evil, then its all well and good. Which works just fine for both of us. She gets her well-earned proceeds of business, I get my pick from her rich variety of excellent supplies, in a manner restrictionless, unrestrained and without being in the slightest way leashed by anything other than practical physical constraints as to things physically possible to transfer from a point of origin to a destination without decomposing, and with the proviso she herself has the capability to furnish what I may ask for, if she has it, and I can afford her prices, which are very fair indeed, and it would physically survive the journey without decomposing etc. then I've got it. Which suits me down to the ground, my one-stop-shop and go-to-girl for more or less anything and everything, not only because of quality of wares, but, because I also value being able to cultivate a working relationship with a specific supplier, and also, I value too, that service with a smile factor that you just don't get filling in an order form, ticking boxes in a catalog etc., not just quality that matters IMO, but the personal side of having a living, breathing human being on the other end of the business equation rather than a faceless body-corporate, that is just a huge corporation, thats so big they then often start to disdain the private customer, to the point of not even having the decency of deigning to answer a request, even to say sorry but we aren't selling XYZ to private individuals, but who get big enough they feel like they are bigger than god, in attitude wise, and too big to have to bother speaking to those 'beneath them. Which isn't just irritating and aggravating, inconvenient but actually quite insulting really, to feel as though one is regarded as worth no better than something such big businesses just scraped off the sole of their shoe of canine origin and covered in green/black/grey/all the above colored fuzz.
Precisely the kind of shitty treatment and/or appallingo attitudes to customer service at that makes me want to slam down the phone, spit out a couple of teeth-blistering, toenail-curling curses; whereas my supplier that I use for my un-denatured ethanol amongst most everything else, she always leaves me with a smile on my face both after doing business, and upon receipt of my purchases. ''Service with a smile'' is something I feel one just cannot BUY, its priceless.
