I’m a huge tea drinker and drink it by the absolute bucket
load, in fact, I’ve got a pot on the go while I’m writing this blog! I must
drink at least 10 cups a day and I’d say that’s quite a conservative estimate, if
I’m honest! I have, however, cut out caffeine and so it’s decaf all the way for
me, not that I think that makes any difference to taste, well, not to me,
anyhow.
I really cannot imagine a life without tea. It’s the first
thing to pass my lips in the morning and most days the last thing that I drink
at night. In fact, I’d rather have a cup of tea than a beer and have even been
known to go down the local pub for a night out and have a cup of tea. Sad but
true!
You see, I’m originally from the Midlands and I come from a
bit of a family of tea drinkers. My dad was probably the biggest tea drinker in
my family, closely followed by my sister, Wyd and then me. My mum drinks tea,
but I don’t think she’s so consumed by the need for it as the rest of us seem
to be. We all like a nice cup of ‘builder’s tea’, or to those of you that don’t
know that’s just your bog standard tea, P.G. or Tetley. Whereas my other
sister, Tracy, she’s a ‘Lady Grey’ girl, or ‘Pledge’ as I like to call it as to
me it tastes like furniture polish smells!
I sometimes wonder how I would cope if I was to relocate to
another country ‘cause, as any serious tea drinker will tell you, you just can’t
get a decent cup of tea abroad. I remember being on holiday once and ordering a
tea with milk and they brought me out a glass of cold water with a teabag
suspended in it and a glass of milk! I really did not foresee that one, but I suppose
that’s what I asked for!
Us Brits really do love our tea and it’s more than just a
drink to us, it’s an entire social experience. We invite people around for ‘a
cuppa’ and a chinwag and then we make a lovely pot of tea and set it out on a
tray with a jug of milk. You might even get a biscuit to dunk if you’re really
lucky. And, if you’re upset what’s the first thing we say? ‘Come and sit down
and I’ll make you a nice cup of tea’. It really does help to take the stress
out of a situation. And whether you call it a cuppa, a brew or just a plain old
cup of tea, it’s all the same to us so long as it’s hot and wet.
A few weeks ago while my wife and I were out we treated ourselves
to a cheeky cream tea! If you’ve never had a cream tea it’s a pot of tea, usually for two, served
with a fruit scone, a pot of jam and a pot of clotted cream…hmmmmm...now that’s
a posh tea but this type carries a few extra calories, only just, though! The
more pressing question was whether to put the jam on first or the cream, but
that’s a whole other story!
For me the perfect cup of tea is poured from a pot where it
has had enough time to ‘diffuse’ but not so long that it’s ‘stewed’, into a mug
that already has a little milk in it and it should be poured with enough height
so as to create some bubbles on the top of the tea, or ‘money’ as my mum calls
it (I have no idea why she calls it that, she just does), and then it has to be
drunk while it’s still hot, if it’s gone to warm it’s just not the same,
drinkable but, meh, and if it’s gone cold, no way, never!
Anyhow, that’s how I drink mine. A little bit fussy, but, well,
I likes what I likes and well, you just don’t compromise on a cup of tea. So, tell me, how
do you drink yours?