Friday 24 October 2014

The history of tea and interesting facts about tea

The History of Tea

I've read somewhere that tea was an accidental discovery, like most discoveries are,
by a Chinese Emperor Shen Nung who was drinking hot water in his garden when
some tea leaves accidentally blew into his cup from a nearby tree.

Of course the story is so old that it could be a myth and no-one knows for sure.
One argument is did India or China discover tea first, from what I've read there is
a high probability that tea did in fact get discovered in China first.
Where did the saying Cha come from? Cha is a Chinese character that was added
to the language in A.D.3 specifically to describe hot water infused with tea leaves.
And to bolster the argument further it was many centuries later that tea plants were
imported into to Calcutta from China to begin mass cultivation for the British market.

How about the tea bag?

 

Another misconception is that Tetley's invented the tea bag,
well they didn't, in fact they didn't start making tea bags until
nearly 50 years after they were being widely used in the USA.
The tea bag was invented by an American named Thomas Sullivan, a New York tea merchant, who started to send samples of tea to his customers in small silken bags in 1908 and the concept quickly caught on as a convenient and less messy way to make a cuppa.




It was Tetley in 1953 that drove the introduction of tea bags in Britain, in the 60's
tea bags only made up 3% of all tea drunk in the UK, this was due mainly to the
fact that Britons returning from the US would tell horror stories of being served a
luke warm cup of water with a tea bag on the side.
Anyhow, Tetley managed to sway the British public and completely reversed the
way they made their tea, by dispensing of the string attached to the bag so it could
be allowed to move freely in the teapot, now only 3% of tea is made with loose leaves!

Why do we add milk to our tea?

In the early years green tea was the tea of choice but tea was expensive
which lead some greedy and unscrupulous traders to add other leaves to mix some of
which were poisonous. This lead to black tea becoming more popular and because
black tea is more bitter people added milk and sugar to make it taste better.

Health benefits of tea

Of all the studies that have been made about tea there have never been found any
harmful effects, in fact tea has less caffeine than coffee.
Tea has been shown to reduce cholesterol, combat diabetes, cancer and even promote
weight loss. Tea is packed with antioxidants and is good for circulation thus is
good for your heart and brain, it even reduces the lung damage caused by smoking.

Which is the best tea to drink?

All of them! Although, like most foods, the more processed it is the less of the good
stuff it contains even the most processed teas are still very good for you.
Here is a list of popular teas by order of highest to lowest anti-oxidizing powers.


 

 

 

 

 

List Of Tea's

 

White Tea

Uncured and UN-fermented. One study showed that white tea has the most potent
anticancer properties compared to more processed teas.

Green Tea

The leaves are steamed in production, they have a high concentration of flavonoids
and are well studied. Green tea has been shown to combat the growth of bladder,
breast, lung, stomach, pancreatic, and colon cancers. Prevent clogging of the
arteries and burn fat. Relieve oxidizing stress on the brain, reduce risk of neurological
disorders like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, reduce risks of stroke and improve
cholesterol levels.

Black Tea

Made with fermented tea leaves, black tea has the highest caffeine content and
studies have shown that black tea may protect lungs from damage caused by exposure
to cigarette smoke. It also reduces the risk of brain diseases.
So there you have it, everything you need to know about tea and plenty of facts you
can use in your quizzes. What next? Put the kettle on of course.
Cha for now.

Thursday 14 August 2014

True or False Quiz Questions

True or False

Good day fellow quizzers.
I've been really really busy lately with keeping the Facebook Pub Quiz page engaging and fun.
Writing new pub quizzes for the pub quiz website every week but the biggest time consumer by far is the
quiz app I've been working on, which never seems to be near completion.
So it's been a while since I've posted anything on this pub quiz blog and I thought
I'd better make the effort today to at least write something.

I'm going to give you a list of true or false questions for you to have a go at and then
at the end I'm going to give you the answers plus a bit more info to go with each one
so you will leave this article more enlightened and a little more educated.
Let's see if you can get 10 out of 10.

True or False Questions

1. A butterfly has four wings?
2. Luke Skywalker was Princess Leia's brother?
3. On a bottle of wine spumante means sweet?
4. Twiki was a robot in Battlestar Galactica?
5. The famous magician Harry Houdini was Italian?
6. Walt Disney’s Seven Dwarfs worked in a gold mine?
7. Blue is the most common eye colour in the world?
8. Tarantula bites are deadly to the human beings?
9. Sony produced the first battery powered cassette recorder?
10. Bats always turn left when they leave a cave?

OK, so that didn't take long but did you think about those questions long enough?
Maybe you should go through them again just to make sure, you do want to
get full marks don't you? I do love true or false questions because they make you
think, "is it true or is it a myth?" or is the quiz master trying to trick me?
I ask my friend these sorts of questions all the time and he never believes me most
of the time, he then goes home and looks it up on the internet to make sure I'm not
pulling his leg.
Anyhow, let's get on to the answers.

True or False Answers


1. True, a butterfly does have four wings.
Did you also know that the original name for the butterfly was flutterby? Seems
hard to believe doesn't it? But it's true!
The origin of the name butterfly, is a fly that eats butter. Going even further back,
to the dutch origin, "Butter Shitter", because the dutch thought the insect pooped on the butter.
Did you know butterflies taste with their feet?

2. True, they both have the same father, Darth Vader!

3. False, The word spumante, which means foaming in Italian, is a general term used for
almost any type of sparkling wine made in Italy, while one that is sweet will be called dolce.

4. False, Twiki was the robot in Buck Rogers In The 25th Century, who's catchphrase was,
"biddi-biddi-biddi, hey Buck.."
followed by some funny 20th century slang he picked up from Buck Rogers.

5. False, Harry Houdini was a Hungarian-American illusionist and stunt performer,
noted for his sensational escape acts.

6. False, Walt Disney’s Seven Dwarfs, named Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful,
Sneezy and Dopey worked in a diamond mine.
The Seven Dwarfs finish their digging work for the day, singing the "Dig, Dig" song..
"We dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig.
In a mine the whole day through.
We dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig.
It's what we like to do.
It ain't no trick. To get rich quick. If you dig, dig, dig, with a shovel or a pick.
In a mine. In a mine. In a mine. In a mine.
Where a million diamonds shine."

7. False, brown is the most common eye colour in the world.
Brown eyes range from light brown or honey to almost black.
Light brown or amber eyes are common in many ethnicities including among Africans,
Asians and Caucasians. Genetically brown appears to be more dominant than other eye colors,
hence its prevalence.

Blue eyes are quite rare and are becoming less common. A few generations ago 30% of those
born had blue eyes; now that number has decreased to about one in six.
This eye color is often found among people of European descent.

Grey eyes are a variant of blue eyes, only much lighter.
Grey eyes often include a combination of other tints including light blue or greenish.

Green eyes are among the most rare eye color and only about 2% of people possess green eyes.
They are typically found among people with Germanic or Slavic origins.

8. False, if a tarantula bites you, you may have pain at the site of the bite similar to a bee sting.
The area of the bite may become warm and red. On extreemly rare occassions, like if you are
allergic to venom, a tarantula bite might become fatal.

9. False, although Sony is famous for the Walkman the first company was Phillips.
Phillips was founded in May 15, 1891, Eindhoven, Netherlands.

10. Depends where you live!
True, Bats do indeed always turn left when they leave their cave in the Northern hemisphere.
False, Bats always turn right when they leave their cave in the Southern hemisphere.
This is due to the coriolis effect, the same force which causes hurricanes and tornadoes to rotate
counter-clockwise north of the equator and clockwise south of the equator.
This effect is an inertial force caused by the earth's rotation.   

So there you have it, did you learn something new today?
Please leave a comment if you enjoyed this article, it's always nice to know my hard work is
appreciated. If you enjoy these types of fun facts then you will definitely like my Facebook page
facebook.com/quizpubuk
Why not sign in to your Facebook account and like my page so you can get my daily posts.

Thursday 26 June 2014

Free Quiz Questions

Free quiz questions and Answers

It's been a little while since I posted some of my free quiz questions and I'm going to treat you to some here that you will not see anywhere else, how do I know you won't find them anywhere else? Because I made these quiz questions myself, that's why.

The Questions


1.   What have Winston Churchill and Popeye got in common?
2.   The midpoint of the year occurs in which month?
3.   True or False, Dolly, the first cloned sheep, was named after Dolly Parton?
4.   What was the first full-length movie made entirely on computer?
5.   In which bat and ball game is it illegal to play a volley?
6.   What do Americans call what the English call “Tights”?
7.   Which two of these are naturally non magnetic, Lead, Iron, Copper & Nickel?
8.   True or False, you are more likely to get flooded than burgled in the UK?
9.   Which 2013 space walk film starred Sandra Bullock & George Clooney?
10. In the Fawlty Towers Gourmet Nights episode what was given “a damned good thrashing”?
11. What are the 6 people's first names in the Phonetic Alphabet?
12. Which is the biggest country, by area, in the European Union?
13. Which 5 letter word is still pronounced the same with the last 4 letters removed?
14. True or False, Horatio Nelson suffered with sea-sickness his whole life?
15. What was the name of the fictional village in the UK TV show Noel’s House Party?
16. Which is the only natural food that does not go bad?
17. How many of the 4 U.S. states that begin with "New" can you name?
18. On a Monopoly board, what colour is Pall Mall?
19. Which is the only planet not named after a God?
20. Who is protected by the Swiss Guard?

The Answers


1.   Tattoo of an anchor
2.   July 2nd Midday (non leap year)
3.   True
4.   Toy Story
5.   Table Tennis
6.   Pantyhose
7.   Lead & Copper
8.   True
9.   Gravity
10.Basil’s car
11. Charlie, Juliet, Mike, Oscar, Romeo & Victor
12. France
13. Queue
14. True
15. Crinkly Bottom
16. Honey
17. New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico & New York
18. Pink
19. Earth
20. The Pope

Please post kind comments if you enjoyed these questions and answers and if you'd like me to post some more. I hope you enjoyed them.

Wednesday 7 May 2014

Brain Teaser 4 Lateral Thinking

Fun Puzzles

Hello quizzers.
To solve todays puzzle will require some lateral thinking on your part. It only took me 5 minutes to solve when I first saw this brain teaser and I remember being well chuffed when I finally worked it out.
How long will it take you?
As usual I'm not going to give you the solution until somebody posts a reply, enjoy!


Saturday 22 February 2014

Brain Teaser 3, puzzles are fun!

Brain Teasers For Fun

Hello fellow quizzer, I hope you're having a nice time reading my interesting blogs here on Blogger today.
In this article I'm going to give you 2 brain teasers taken from 2 of my pub quizzes.
I will reveal the answers when some of you post a reply and have a guess, until then enjoy!

Brain Teaser 1

Two Mafia bosses were sat at a bar drinking scotch on the rocks one fine summer evening in New York.
Unknown to them one of their enemies had instructed the bar man to poison all their drinks.
One of the Mafia bosses drank a lot faster than the other one, infact he drank 5 glasses of Scotch by the time the other one had only drunk 1 glass of Scotch!
The boss that had only drunk one glass died on the spot, but the other boss that drank 5 glasses felt no ill effects at all even though all his drinks had been poisoned in exactly the same way, how can this be?

Brain Teaser 2

You might want to get some match sticks or tooth picks and set them out as in the picture below, it might make it easier for you to solve, see how long it takes you.











All my pub quiz packs that I make for pubs include puzzles and brain teasers just like the two examples above, it gives the quiz teams something to keep them entertained before the quiz starts.
I will be posting more soon so if you enjoyed these then why not bookmark this page, recommend it on Google, share it on Facebook or Twitter right now? Just click the buttons below, go on, help me out.

Saturday 1 February 2014

States of America Quiz

The States of America always make good quiz questions and in this article I will show you how I make interesting questions that I use in my pub quizzes. First I'm going to give you some facts that you can use to make original quiz questions and then I'm going to finish off with some great fun questions about the actual states names.

The States of America


Everybody knows that there are 50 states that share sovereignty with the United States federal government.
Let's begin with the history of how the states came into existence and how they evolved over time.

Did you know America was given the name by a German map maker? Back in 1507 Martin Waldseemüller created a map of the world on which he named the great lands of the Western Hemisphere "America" after the Italian explorer and navigator Amerigo Vespucci.

The states started out with 13 British colonies, the first of which was Virginia founded in 1607 and lastly by Georgia in 1733. The colonies joined together to declare independence in 1776.

Quiz Facts
The state of Virginia was named after Queen Elizabeth I, the virgin queen.
Georgia was named after King George II

The term United States of America was first coined in 1776 when Thomas Jefferson included the phrase in all capital letters in the heading of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence.


The Original 13 States of America

Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island.

Delaware was given the name held as a title by Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, the Governor of Virginia from 1610 until 1618. At that time the area was considered to be part of the Virginia colony.

Pennsylvania  was named after William Penn who founded a colony there for the religious freedom of Quakers, and named it after his family "Penn" and the "woods" (from Latin) sylvania.

New Jersey was named by James, brother of King Charles II of England, who named the colony New Jersey to honour Sir George Carteret, who had been the Governor of Jersey, a British island in the English Channel.

Connecticut gets it's name from the Connecticut River which got its name from the Mohican Indian word "quonehtacut", which means "the place of the long tidal river."

Massachusetts got its name from the Massachusetts Bay which was given its name by the Pilgrim Fathers who founded the Plymouth Colony in 1620. They named the Bay after the Algonquian Indians whose name was derived from mass-adchu-seuck or 'people from the big hill'.

Maryland is named in honour of Henrietta Maria of France, wife of Charles I of England. It was also the capital of United States of America from 1783 to 1784.

North and South Carolina were named in honour of King Charles l. Carolus is Latin for Charles. The nickname for South Carolina is the Palmetto State.

New Hampshire got it's name from Captain John Mason and was named after the English county of Hampshire. John Mason was one of the founders of Portsmouth in 1630.

New York got its name from the English Duke of York and Albany (and the brother of England's King Charles II) in 1664 when the region was originally called "New Amsterdam" by the Dutch settlers.



Rhode Island got its name from the Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, there in 1635, who called it 'Roodt Eylandt.' The words mean red island and was in reference to the red clay that was prominent and which surrounded the shoreline.

Obviously if I were to list all 50 states like this it would take me days so let's move on to some great facts that you can use as quiz questions.

50 States of America


Here are all 50 states followed by the two letter abbreviation used in the post code, zip code, the year it became a state and last but not least the capital city of each state. Please note that over half of the capital cities of the 50 States of America are not the most populated.

Alabama         AL     1819     Montgomery
Alaska         AK     1959     Juneau
Arizona         AZ     1912     Phoenix
Arkansas     AR     1836     Little Rock
California     CA     1850     Sacramento
Colorado         CO     1876     Denver
Connecticut     CT     1788     Hartford
Delaware     DE     1787     Dover
Florida         FL     1845     Tallahassee
Georgia         GA     1788     Atlanta
Hawaii         HI     1959     Honolulu
Idaho         ID     1890     Boise
Illinois         IL     1818     Springfield
Indiana         IN     1816     Indianapolis
Iowa         IA     1846     Des Moines
Kansas         KS     1861     Topeka
Kentucky     KY     1792     Frankfort
Louisiana     LA     1812     Baton Rouge
Maine         ME     1820     Augusta
Maryland     MD     1788     Annapolis
Massachusetts     MA     1788     Boston
Michigan     MI     1837     Lansing
Minnesota     MN     1858     Saint Paul
Mississippi     MS     1817     Jackson
Missouri         MO     1821     Jefferson City
Montana         MT     1889     Helena
Nebraska     NE     1867     Lincoln
Nevada         NV     1864     Carson City
New Hampshire     NH     1788     Concord
New Jersey     NJ     1787     Trenton
New Mexico     NM     1912     Santa Fe
New York     NY     1788     Albany
North Carolina     NC     1789     Raleigh
North Dakota     ND     1889     Bismark
Ohio         OH     1803     Columbus
Oklahoma     OK     1907      Oklahoma City
Oregon         OR     1859     Salem
Pennsylvania     PA     1787     Harrisburg
Rhode Island     RI     1790     Providence
South Carolina     SC     1788     Columbia
South Dakota     SD     1889     Pierre
Tennessee     TN     1796      Nashville
Texas         TX     1845     Austin
Utah         UT     1896     Salt Lake City
Vermont         VT     1791     Montpelier
Virginia         VA     1788     Richmond
Washington     WA     1889     Olympia
West Virginia     WV     1863     Charleston
Wisconsin     WI     1848     Madison
Wyoming     WY     1890     Cheyenne


Using the list above and being creative you can come up with such quiz questions as these..

 States of America Quiz


The abbreviation NC is the two letter code for which American State?
What is the capital city of Texas?
Santa Fe is the capital city of which U.S. state?
Which is the only U.S. state that begins with the letter U?
In what year did Hawaii become a U.S. state?
There are 4 U.S. states that end with the letter O, can you name them?
Which mythical bird is the state capital of Arizona?
What have Illinois and The Simpsons got in common?
What connects ancient Greece with Washington state?
Did Ohio become a state in the 18th or 19th century?
Can you name the 4 U.S. states that begin with "New"?
Can you spell Massachusetts?

All the states have nicknames too, another great source of quiz questions!

State Nicknames - Nicknames of U.S. States


Alabama
   
The Yellowhammer State
The Cotton State
The Heart of Dixie

Alaska
   
The Last Frontier

Arizona
   
The Grand Canyon State

Arkansas
   
The Natural State

California
   
The Golden State

Colorado
   
The Centennial State

Connecticut
   
The Constitution State

Delaware
   
The First State

Florida
   
The Sunshine State

Georgia
   
The Peach State

Hawaii
   
The Aloha State

Idaho
   
The Gem State

Illinois
   
The Prairie State

Indiana
   
The Hoosier State

Iowa
   
The Hawkeye State

Kansas
   
The Sunflower State

Kentucky
   
The Bluegrass State

Louisiana
   
The Pelican State

Maine
   
The Pine Tree State

Maryland
   
The Old Line State

Massachusetts
   
The Bay State

Michigan
   
The Great Lakes State

Minnesota
   
The North Star State

Mississippi
   
The Magnolia State

Missouri
   
The Show Me State

Montana
   
The Treasure State

Nebraska
   
The Cornhusker State

Nevada
   
The Silver State

New Hampshire
   
The Granite State

New Jersey
   
The Garden State

New Mexico
   
The Land of Enchantment

New York
   
The Empire State

North Carolina
   
The Tar Heel State

North Dakota
   
The Peace Garden State

Ohio
   
The Buckeye State

Oklahoma
   
The Sooner State

Oregon
   
The Beaver State

Pennsylvania
   
The Keystone State

Rhode Island
   
The Ocean State

South Carolina
   
The Palmetto State

South Dakota
   
Mount Rushmore State

Tennessee
   
The Volunteer State

Texas
   
The Lone Star State

Utah
   
The Beehive State

Vermont
   
The Green Mountain State

Virginia
   
Old Dominion

Washington
   
The Evergreen State

West Virginia
   
The Mountain State

Wisconsin
   
The Badger State

Wyoming
   
The Equality or Cowboy State





Good quiz questions are creative quiz questions. Don't just ask, "which state is known as the mountain state?"
Try these I just made up from the list above.

U.S. State Nicknames Quiz


Which states nickname is a type of hairstyle?
Which states nickname is also a famous skyscraper?
What fruit is found in Georgia's nickname?
Which states nickname is a type of rock?
Which states nickname means affection, peace, compassion and mercy?
How many states nicknames are named after plants?

So there you have it, if you study this article you can very easily come up with a hundred quiz questions on one topic and what makes this such a great topic is that most people pride themselves in being knowledgeable about the United States of America!

This article was written by Martin the quiz master of the UK's best and most professional fun quiz website www.quizpub.co.uk

Wednesday 15 January 2014

Size Matters

While making the latest pub quiz I thought that the specialised round in the one I was making would make a great topic for our pub quiz websites blogger page.

Biggest Things in the World

When you think about the subject title above you probably think of skyscrapers, waterfalls, aeroplanes and cars. I don't like to be so obvious when making quizzes and spend a lot of time being creative, that's what keeps our customers coming back for more. It's much better to make your own quiz questions because it's more entertaining for the quiz teams. So in this article I'm going to give you some of my ideas for making a good quiz round which I call..

Size Matters

To start this subject off we will take a look at Counties in the UK and States in the USA.
I started with a list of counties in the UK and Wikipedia kindly provided me with all the
statistics I could ever wish for. When we say biggest county we are normally talking about population, although area can also be used to get more quiz questions.

Top Ten Counties in the UK by population

1.     Greater London         8,196,700
2.     West Midlands          2,739,800
3.     Greater Manchester   2,685,400
4.     West Yorkshire          2,227,400
5.     Kent                         1,466,500
6.     Essex                        1,396,600
7.     Merseyside               1,380,800
8.     South Yorkshire         1,343,900
9.     Hampshire                1,322,300
10.   Lancashire                1,171,600


There are a number of quiz questions we can glean from this list.

Which is the biggest county in the UK?
What are the three biggest counties in the UK?
What is the population of Greater London, to the nearest million?
Put these counties in order of size from biggest to smallest, Essex, Kent and the West Midlands.
Which has the biggest population, South Yorkshire or West Yorkshire?
True or False, Greater London has more people living in it than the West Midlands, Manchester and West Yorkshire combined?
6 different types of questions all about the same subject, and they are interesting questions that anyone can have a guess at answering!
I could go on and on but you can see the way my mind works in creating questions from a list of statistics.

 Top Ten States in the USA by population

1      California           38,332,521
2      Texas                 26,448,193
3      New York          19,651,127
4      Florida               19,552,860
5      Illinois                12,882,135
6      Pennsylvania       12,773,801
7      Ohio                   11,570,808
8      Georgia                9,992,167
9      Michigan              9,895,622
10    North Carolina     9,848,060

Everyone knows that California has the biggest population in the USA, it's a common quiz question. When I come across questions like that I dig deeper to create my own. Let's take a look at the list of U.S. states by population and see what questions we can come up with.

Which is the second most populated state in the USA?
Which has the biggest population, New York or Texas?
To the nearest million, what is the population of the state of New York?
Put these U.S. states in order of size from most populated to least, Florida, New York and Texas.
Does California have twice as many or three times as many people living in it than Florida?
True or False, Michigan has more people living in it than Illinois?

 I hope this article has inspired you to create your own free quiz questions for your quizzes instead of just looking for free ones to use. Some of you simply don't have the time and if that's you then that's what I'm here for, visit our website and download ready made fun quiz packs for your pub quiz here: www.quizpub.co.uk/

You can find us and many more interesting blogs at the Blog search Directory