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Episode: Mythbusting - Herbal Teas

Hugh
2008-12-03 13:40:00 UTC

It’s up! Yes, now you can see Alex test out the calming powers of Camomile against the aggravating powers of World of Warcraft Warsong Gulch, see if Ginkgo makes him RAWK more on Guitar Hero, and, erm, see if Valarian makes Final Fantasy X put him to sleep any faster…

Enjoy!

If you’re interested in aquiring the DVD, you can get it from the Kamikaze Cookery shop

I must admit, I was pretty surprised by the results – I was expecting camomile to work for sure. What do you think? Do you mainline camomile for its soothing properties? Are there teas we should have tested?

Comments

Wolfger \| 2008-12-03 23:28:46 UTC Hi guys. I found your show last week thanks to Boing Boing, and I instantly fell in love with it, and watched every episode. Then I watched today’s episode. Crap. Total crap. Thoroughly unscientific, and not even very funny. And I’m not even a fan of herbal teas (unless they taste good… I’m a fan of anything that tastes good).
Hakuo0000 \| 2008-12-04 03:41:59 UTC Wts, there’s a Gallifreyen Farmer’s Association? WHY WAS I NOT TOLD? DO NOT BLASPHEME. DO NOT BLASPHEME. ~~Cough.~~ Oh gwad, I love the McCain allusion. ="D Well, swell episode all around and everything. I don’t much drink tea, they don’t give you the same nice speed+addictive effect as coffee. Coffee. Yuuumz. Anywho, I never did hold much of a light to tea and their super effective powers, but I do know a few help with cancer and stuff, but everything else is a bit ‘meh’ to me. Oh, by the way, I loved when Hugh whispered “Guitar Hero . . .” Full of win.
Hugh \| 2008-12-04 11:17:44 UTC Wolfger – Sorry you didn’t like the episode. Hopefully you’ll feel we’re back on track next week. Hakuo – Thanks! Pity this episode didn’t come out before the election, but there you go…
pajh \| 2008-12-04 15:24:57 UTC @Wolfger: thanks for the feedback. I suppose eight out of nine ain’t bad. Could you give us any more details on what you disliked about this one?
Jaxom92 \| 2008-12-04 16:30:02 UTC Hey, love the show, this episode included. Sure, you all start with the premise of science applied to cooking, but I must say it’s your comedy that really keeps me watching. I look forward to purchasing the DVD. Despite your link, I don’t yet see the DVD in the shop. I anxiously await the unveiling!
Hugh \| 2008-12-04 16:40:25 UTC DAMN! There’s been an error. I’m updating it now.
Hugh \| 2008-12-04 16:54:04 UTC The DVD is now back in the shop. Sorry about that.
Ölf \| 2008-12-04 20:42:39 UTC I think some of the camomile might be a non-effect: name a hot drink that does not contain caffeine, certain “invigorating” essential oils (that’s another one you could have done: will crisped mint or citric fruits refresh?), maybe rule out sour-ish, too, anything that might stimulate. You end up with camomile and maybe rosehip. It’s not that camomile is calming, it’s just better than coffee in that respect. (Eleven cups of coffee and WoW sounds like Leeroy Jenkins to me.)
Narble \| 2008-12-06 02:13:06 UTC While I did enjoy the episode, I can’t help but think that with an experiment like this, a control group would help the results a bit. Having the same man give us results for without tea and with seems rather arbitrary.
Amanda \| 2008-12-06 13:43:54 UTC This is possibly my faviourite episode to date…!
Hugh \| 2008-12-06 14:57:52 UTC Narble – by “control group”, do you mean a second person or persons playing the same game but not drinking the tea, or doing the same as Alex for comparison? Or indeed, should we have done a double-blind where one person had tea and one didn’t, and they didn’t know which was which? (A very small medical trial model, basically). It would be interesting to add a bit more rigour to our testing (there’s a reason we call it “scientific-ish”), provided it doesn’t detract from the funny…
pajh \| 2008-12-06 19:30:42 UTC @Narble—that would just tell us that some people were better at games than others. We could maybe do a matched-pair twin study. That could be fun.

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Wolfger \| 2008-12-03 23:28:46 UTC Hi guys. I found your show last week thanks to Boing Boing, and I instantly fell in love with it, and watched every episode. Then I watched today’s episode. Crap. Total crap. Thoroughly unscientific, and not even very funny. And I’m not even a fan of herbal teas (unless they taste good… I’m a fan of anything that tastes good).
Hakuo0000 \| 2008-12-04 03:41:59 UTC Wts, there’s a Gallifreyen Farmer’s Association? WHY WAS I NOT TOLD? DO NOT BLASPHEME. DO NOT BLASPHEME. ~~Cough.~~ Oh gwad, I love the McCain allusion. ="D Well, swell episode all around and everything. I don’t much drink tea, they don’t give you the same nice speed+addictive effect as coffee. Coffee. Yuuumz. Anywho, I never did hold much of a light to tea and their super effective powers, but I do know a few help with cancer and stuff, but everything else is a bit ‘meh’ to me. Oh, by the way, I loved when Hugh whispered “Guitar Hero . . .” Full of win.
Hugh \| 2008-12-04 11:17:44 UTC Wolfger – Sorry you didn’t like the episode. Hopefully you’ll feel we’re back on track next week. Hakuo – Thanks! Pity this episode didn’t come out before the election, but there you go…
pajh \| 2008-12-04 15:24:57 UTC @Wolfger: thanks for the feedback. I suppose eight out of nine ain’t bad. Could you give us any more details on what you disliked about this one?
Jaxom92 \| 2008-12-04 16:30:02 UTC Hey, love the show, this episode included. Sure, you all start with the premise of science applied to cooking, but I must say it’s your comedy that really keeps me watching. I look forward to purchasing the DVD. Despite your link, I don’t yet see the DVD in the shop. I anxiously await the unveiling!
Hugh \| 2008-12-04 16:40:25 UTC DAMN! There’s been an error. I’m updating it now.
Hugh \| 2008-12-04 16:54:04 UTC The DVD is now back in the shop. Sorry about that.
Ölf \| 2008-12-04 20:42:39 UTC I think some of the camomile might be a non-effect: name a hot drink that does not contain caffeine, certain “invigorating” essential oils (that’s another one you could have done: will crisped mint or citric fruits refresh?), maybe rule out sour-ish, too, anything that might stimulate. You end up with camomile and maybe rosehip. It’s not that camomile is calming, it’s just better than coffee in that respect. (Eleven cups of coffee and WoW sounds like Leeroy Jenkins to me.)
Narble \| 2008-12-06 02:13:06 UTC While I did enjoy the episode, I can’t help but think that with an experiment like this, a control group would help the results a bit. Having the same man give us results for without tea and with seems rather arbitrary.
Amanda \| 2008-12-06 13:43:54 UTC This is possibly my faviourite episode to date…!
Hugh \| 2008-12-06 14:57:52 UTC Narble – by “control group”, do you mean a second person or persons playing the same game but not drinking the tea, or doing the same as Alex for comparison? Or indeed, should we have done a double-blind where one person had tea and one didn’t, and they didn’t know which was which? (A very small medical trial model, basically). It would be interesting to add a bit more rigour to our testing (there’s a reason we call it “scientific-ish”), provided it doesn’t detract from the funny…
pajh \| 2008-12-06 19:30:42 UTC @Narble—that would just tell us that some people were better at games than others. We could maybe do a matched-pair twin study. That could be fun.