I am about to confess something of great magnitude.
I, I ... I don't drink tea. Oh but I used to, no day went by without 6 cups of distilled British Empire soaked in three teaspoons of white mischief from Tate & Lyle. Yes, for me, it was nothing but drug paraphernalia for a tooth quivering crystalline sugar high.
Oh but I do like the kit. The aged silver patina of the tea strainer, or when I was a child, my hamster's 'fencing mask' - yes I was leathered sorely for that one. The tintinnabulation of fine bone china, opaque yet almost translucent when held up to the light.
When it comes to the subject of tea I defer to George Orwell who in 1946 wrote a classic essay on the perfect cup of tea in the Evening Standard:
"First of all, use Indian Or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues not to be despised- it is economical, and can be drunk without milk - but one does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it.
How do you enjoy your daily cuppa?
Fortnum and Mason
The Palm Court at the Ritz
What is tea without cake? The remnants of a really ropy Victoria Sponge which I whipped up at the weekend.
Coffee is my passion, however I've become attached to Darjeeling tea occasionally as a restorative. Black, no sugar. It's my sure-fire jet lag cure. I love the idea and rituals of Tea.
ReplyDeleteOh I find black tea so bitter, you're a sophisticat.
DeleteAfternoon tea is my downfall since it ligitimises 4pm gorges of cake and biscuits. I have created a fairly virtuous and tasty alternative to my regular tipple of Earl Grey with whole milk and carrot cake. I found some half price Earl Grey Green tea, I make a really strong cup of antioxidant boosting green tea, dip a black tea bag in at the end, since adding milk to green tea looks like you have liquidised Shrek. The dip of a black tea bag just gives the right colour and then top off with a drop of milk. The cake has been replaced with dates, the combination of the tea and the sweetness seems to fool my brain into believing that I am indulging in all usual delicacies.
ReplyDeleteOh it really does, what a great description.
DeleteHello Tabitha;
ReplyDeleteTea at the Ritz, the Savoy or Fortnum and Mason, now we are certainly always up for that. Otherwise, generally speaking, no, seldom, if ever. And never from a ghastly mug into which a tea bag has been dunked! But when it comes to coffee and cake, then we are with you, completely and utterly.
A great friend of ours, living in London, swears by Russian tea obtainable, at least that is where she buys it, from Harrods.
Oh you're on my team, coffee and cakes yes please and tea only if sipped in high faluting establishments.
DeleteI can't believe you don't drink tea?!! I don't drink coffee, which seems to confuse people around here (Australian's take coffee drinking very seriously).
ReplyDeleteI like my tea in a tea cup rather than a mug as it cools down quicker. My ideal cup of tea has to be made with boiling water and I like black tea best over herbal or green teas. My favourites are Orange Pekoe and Darjeeling. Leaf tea is always a lovely treat, but I'll take an ordinary English Breakfast teabag no problems. I have mine black and with no sugar. My pet hate is ordering a cup of tea and getting a coffee cup of hot water with a teabag on the side. And being charged $3 for it.
Did you know that tea is a fragrance, not a taste?
Heidi, really? I'll have to go read up on that.
DeleteHeidi, I'm with you on the hot water with tea bag on the side. Add to that hotel breakfast buffets (usually on the continent) that only provide a thermos of hot water - the resultant dishwater is really not worth drinking!
DeleteYou would have been outraged as I was for the sorry excuse of a "high" (ha!) tea I once experienced. For starters, there were signs at each table asking to please limit the taking of pastries that were set up at tables on the side for self service. Then the waiter shows up with a wood box of tea bags to choose and yes, we got a pot of hot water with the single tea bag for each of us.
DeleteI love the paraphernalia and ritual. Porcelain, silver, and Mariage Frères... but no longer partake, preferring to content myself with the fragrant aroma. Likewise for coffee.
ReplyDeleteNo one goes for tea at the Ritz except Chinese tourists, and the oil rich.
F&M is a different matter altogether, but still unfortunately packed with tourists these days.
Funny how the English take tea in the afternoon, at the same time as French children enjoy le goûter. Wonder if good old Guillaume le Conquérant brought this afternoon delight with him, as well as vocabulary, and Norman castles.
The Ritz is just too gold and ornate for my tastes. Have you been to the Chelsea Flower Show? I really want to go down this year.
DeleteI've never been. And I lived right beside it for many years. It's one of those things I mean to do and never get round to. I'm always green with envy at the fabulous plants carried off on the final day though! The very thought of Alan Titchmarsh, or what ever he's called, is repugnant. That, and annoying mummsy cup cake eaters keeps me away from it. It's all a bit W.I. rock cake and not enough rock chick!
DeleteYep, might get drunk at the Fortumns hospitality tent then and lower the tone!
DeleteBooze and brawls?
DeleteMight see you there then!
Tabitha, like you, I am not a tea drinker. Occasionally I will order a green tea when out with friends, however I just can't drink normal tea or coffee. I have tried on several occasions to join the masses but have failed miserably. Even though I am constantly surrounded by daily-hot-drink-lovers, I lack their enthusiasism for a buzz in a tea cup. I am a warm water drinking gal.
ReplyDeleteFifi I often drink hot water too when I'm out as I only like coffee with lashings of double cream so I try to limit that to mornings only.
DeleteI didn't think there were others who drank hot water, and I always ask for water without ice. I'm with you Tabitha, no low fat non-fat for me, heavy whipping cream please for my coffee and part of the reason we reserve it for once a week.
DeleteWe are a traditional tea drinking family. I am very fussy about my tea. I use loose leaf and always out of cups (mugs are just too builders). Somehow tea never tastes the same abroad even with the same loose leaf. It must be the water!
ReplyDeleteThankfully I keep my mug for my coffee, you should see it, it's as big as my face.
DeleteAh, tea. Now I am an outright tea snob. I have an entire cabinet of my kitchen devoted to the stuff. My current favourites are Mariage Freres vanille, a good aged pu erh, and a nice green sen cha. When it comes to bags, I am a Twinings Earl Grey devotee, but only the organic since they changed the blend in the normal bags, urgh.
ReplyDeleteAs for afternoon tea out and about in London, I ended up in Fortnum last week and they commit the same crime as all the other usual suspects (Wolseley, Ritz, Claridges, etc.): One orders a pot of their finest Earl Grey for the princely sum of 5 quid for some leaves and water...and they just chuck the tea right in the water. I don't know how this became the habit, but leaving the tea in the water causes it to overbrew so by the second cup it is an undrinkable concentrate of tannic acid. No wonder people are turning to coffee. When I find an afternoon tea place in town that actually gets the TEA right, I will be devoted to them for life. Please! Proper infusers that are removed from the pot fairly sharpish! (Yes, this is my pet peeve, first world problem that it is.)
Oh cosmic you are a true connoisseur, oh and it's that bitter tannin which makes me wince, quite possibly I've only ever had overstewed tea.
DeleteI need two cups of organic kukicha in the morning or I'm not fully functional the rest of the day. Some days are three cup days. Some of my fondest are hours over afternoon tea with close friends, I love the fuss and lingering conversation. I've been to many and each is lovely in its own way but oh I just remembered a disgraceful example of tea served at one of the most highly regarded resorts in San Diego.
ReplyDeleteI love coffee too but husby and I save that for once a week.
Twig tea - I had to google that - sounds interesting "nutty and creamy"
ReplyDeleteI'd be pleased to send you some, Tabitha. I don't know about creamy but definitely smooth and soothing. And you can hardly overstew it to the stage of harsh tannins. I think you'd like it.
DeleteYou've touched a subject near and dear to my heart. I can hardly stop from dropping my comments everywhere.
I had plans to come to London this summer, on the sole purpose to enjoy some terrific high teas. Until I found out about the Olympic Games. November should be nice, too! It were the Irish who converted me from coffee to tea. The amazing Irish Breakfast Tea, simple, cheap, comes in boxes with 80 sachets minumum, the larger the box the better and yet it makes me feel a whole lot "wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it".
ReplyDeleteOh Paula, I'm dreading it all, I'm bored with it already.
DeleteIt is a rare day that I have a cup of tea, I am a hard core coffee drinker. However, my sister in law makes great tea, so will always partake if she is in charge of the teapot. Oh, and it must be in a porcelain cup with saucer.
ReplyDeleteClaire: No matter how beautiful the cup, I would still need three teaspoons of sugar in it, I find it too "wet" otherwise.
DeleteYes I need a teaspoon of sugar to make it go down, also milk.
DeleteI only use loose leaf tea and buy it from a specialty shop. I like to mix 2 types together so that I get a different blend each time. Believe it or not this passes for "excitement" in my neck of the woods. I have a vast collection of teacups and I choose according to my mood. I think I have now bought my ticket and boarded the bus for Crazy Town.
ReplyDeleteI don't drink teas as much as I used to, I tend to love the tea sets more than I drink tea ;) I just love having all the little bits and pieces that go with a tea service. I like to collect tea cups and things as well :) One day I'll have a grand table with all of the service sat out like a proper tea party. Wonderful :) Hope you have a super week doll! xx
ReplyDeleteBeen having more tea lately than ever, mostly green tea and a delicious peach tea I discovered but I am a serious java drinker and have to have my daily fix which unfortunately tea just does not equal in my simple non barista opinion. I love all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the proper way of drinking tea and did have high tea at the Plaza in NY a few times which was fun but truth be told right after, I went scouring the streets for my coffee fix at the nearest Starbucks:)
ReplyDeleteA woman after my own heart!
DeleteI like my tea half Darjeeling and half Assam, when I drink it. The rest of the time is coffee.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy my tea the same way I enjoy my women: white, hot, and a bit steamy.
ReplyDeleteI've been drinking it since my teens. Won't touch coffee or those who do. I favour English Breakfast and Earl Grey. Especially the latter.
I often drop a bag of mint or green tea in the mug.
You don't do tea? No worries, I'll have a cup or two on your behalf.
Tea yesterday. Tea today. Tea always and forever!
"white, hot, and a bit steamy."
DeleteHa!
The water must be scolding hot for my cuppa or I can't be bothered.
ReplyDeleteAlways green tea first thing in the morning then as the day progress it's usually English or Irish Breakfast tea with a dash of milk.
My daughter has a drawer full of different concoctions but I stick with ye old run of the mill brews. Wish I could drink coffee but it makes me violently ill, mores the pity.
xx
Annie & Slastena: Oh you health beasts, I cannot drink green tea, well, I can mange it in the US in sushi places but over here it's so bitter. I've tried a few varieties too.
Deletei gave up coffee about 3 years ago (although once in awhile i still like a soy latte) and switched to tea but lately i've been looking for something different. i haven't found it yet and so now i'm just drinking water in the morning. that is just not right and needs to be fixed. your cake looks so delicious!
ReplyDeleteI am addicted to tea- 6 cups of green daily- no sugar, just plain and strong. AT work- it's bags, but good quality- the silk ones so I am enjoying a tea and not a apper. At home, when time permits- I brew, I do so enjoy a good china and the whole finery. It calms my nerves beautifully.
ReplyDeletenot a tea drinker, but love a tea cup
ReplyDeletedallas
http://dillydallas.blogspot.com
Morning tea. Plain white mug from Crate and Barrel. I look forward to it even as I fall asleep:). No sugar, somehow the milk seems sweet enough to me.
ReplyDeleteIf I have time, in the late afternoon, I have an herbal tea in a mug. No pomp and circumstance around it. I love that when we're in London though. Trying to drink more green tea though.
ReplyDeleteI love tea (even though I don't drink it every day). I alternate between Mariage Frères and Taiwanese high mountain tea. George Orwell may have thought "China tea" is economical but he obviously never had the good stuff, which is literally worth more than its weight in gold. While I was in Taiwan, my relatives took me to a tea house up in the mountains and I got to experience the whole ritual of tea making: heating up a tiny little ornate tea pot by immersing it in hot water, washing the tea leaves, the whole works. The rituals associated with tea are incredibly soothing and relaxing.
ReplyDeleteLouise, that must have been amazing and so very beautiful, I would love to experience it.
DeleteI agree with Louise, poor George has no idea what he's talking about. The Chinese take tea very seriously and can take things to the nth degree when it's serious. After all, they have been drinking tea for thousands of years.
DeleteI don't suppose "iced with lemon and mint counts"? Right, didn't think so. I only drink hot tea in hotels; I have no idea why. I do love coffee, tho. I'm trying to cut back by giving up my afternoon cup, but I almost always succumb.
ReplyDeleteI live in the Southern part of the U.S., so that means that we have sweet tea. I actually hate visiting my in-laws in the north because I can't find it anywhere! My husband drinks yerba mate on the times he's giving up coffee. If I have to have warm tea I like white jasmine tea. Still, give me some Luzianne sweet tea with a sprig of mint and ice and I'm a happy camper. Or give me my sweetened condensed milk with a bit of coffee.
ReplyDeleteOh imagine my surprise when I spied my photo here!
ReplyDeleteThank you Tabitha.
I used to have sugar but gave it up and just use milk.
My tea tasting habit goes back to my days with my Granny sipping "Boston tea" nowadays I have about 6 cups of tea each day so I am hooked on it.
Your Victoria sponge looks delicious will you post your recipe for us?
I don't drink tea, either! Well, herbal but not the tea leaf. But I do goggle up tea cakes like there's no tomorrow. You'll post the recipe for the cake, right? It looks too delicious not to.
ReplyDeleteDB and Hostess: just google it on 'all recipes UK' they are all about the same, it's a fairly standard cake, the other side burnt to a crisp somehow,
DeleteCoffee and a cake all the way. If i don't have any cakes then dunking in a biscuit will do too. That is my daily ritual after i come back from work. Drinking coffee and browsing through blogs at 5 every day is my favourite part of the day. I am doing it as we speak!
ReplyDeleteI guzzle green tea all day long - I prefer Japanese matcha or with rice in it and I am known to always have a few bags in my handbag! I adore afternoon tea but it's not as easily found here in the Bay Area and the places that do have it tend to be a little formal - which I like but sometimes I like the ability just to have a casual afternoon tea :)
ReplyDeleteCount me in for tea! I'm a bit un-American in that way, as I never drink coffee, only tea. Although I am of mostly English ancestry, maybe that explains it. In the cooler weather, I brew a pot every morning; I'm not committed to any one variety, but it's always good old black tea, none of this green or herbal stuff for me! No sugar, no milk. Now in the summer (which lasts for 6 months here in Texas!) I switch to iced tea with a squeeze of fresh lemon, which I think is unheard of in England. But when it's so hot every day, I can't really enjoy a steaming cup!
ReplyDeleteTotally agree re restaurant tea...it's rare to find anything better than lukewarm water with a tea bag. Restaurants here do make good iced tea, however!
Tea, coffee, in the morning perhaps, but perfect every time, all the time? Only one word...Champagne.
ReplyDeletexo
Have you tried Roobios (Redbush) tea from S Africa? My wife has had to give up tea and coffee for health reasons, we've both become addicted to caffeine free, organic Tick Tock.
ReplyDeleteIf you're going to Chelsea, try and go as early in the week as pos. monday is best! Later on its a bit of a scrum and a queue fest!
KBO
Herts
Coffee all the way for me! One of the hardest things for me about living in the UK was adjusting to tea in the morning.
ReplyDeleteI too don't drink tea Tabitha (does Green tea count ?). Having said that I always go for tea somewhere swish when I am in London ;-)
ReplyDeleteHi Tabitha,
ReplyDeleteI love coffee (must have 2 in the morning with milk & sugar - I know terrible). When it is cold, I find myself drinking quite a lot of tea in addition to my morning coffee. I try to keep the inevitable bisquits to a minimum. Is that why you no longer drink tea?
Also, as this is my first comment, I must add that I really enjoy your blog. Sometimes you seem American in your ideas but your writing is much more sophisticated than most of us Yanks. I am an American married to a South African (moving to London from Oz in a week) so I am very aware of word choice. Do you have a post on how you came to live in Scotland?
I forgot to ask where is your stunning blue and green plate from?
ReplyDeleteI like tea, but I rarely find myself drinking it - maybe it's a bit too time consuming (steeping, etc)!
ReplyDeleteI admit that I adore the pomp and formality of doing a proper afternoon tea - but honestly I'm not a huge fan of tea, period! Don't tell my asian parents, haha!
ReplyDeleteI've just found your blog via your comments on DaniBP's blog and am really enjoying it!
ReplyDeleteI drink loose leaf green tea in the morning, never steeped longer than 3min - this is key for green tea (and others based on it, jasmine, etc.) as it rapidly becomes undrinkable once over-steeped.
I drink non caffeinated chai the rest of the day.
I also really enjoy other teas - darjeeling, oolong, gen mai cha, etc. - but the above is my current routine.
If I'm ever dragging or upset my husband offers me tea, he thinks it is my cure-all.
I have some beautiful tea cups that have been iny family for 100 or more years and that I transported across the ocean in a backpack because I did not trust anybody else but I a coffee drinker and mostly from paper cups. My husband on the other hand has quite a collection of tea but his favorite is an authentiic post-fermented 'cake' he bought from a Korean friend.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you had a nice trip Tabs! And that your Mom is doing fine.
ReplyDeleteAs for tea, I've recently begun drinking loose rooibos tea and I like Earl Grey. But I'm definitely a coffee drinker at heart!
I'm pretty basic when it comes to my cuppa, the Irish in me likes my cup of Barrys with some milk and a pinch of sugar. It's pretty said but nothing makes me happier than a cuppa and a Hobnob (actually that's not true, wine makes me pretty happy too)
ReplyDeleteI am a green tea drinker, all day long. I do love a proper tea, and have wonderful memories of my grandmother taking me to the Hotel Saskatchewan for high tea. I was a pre-teen and felt like quite a lady.
ReplyDeleteAhhhh...afternoon tea. I have actually planned our arrival for afternoon tea when we travel. check in time is typically at 3 o'clock and tea time is from 3 to 5. You can imagine how annoyed I become when there are delays and I arrive only to find a crumb or two of what looked like the perfect scone. I love everything about tea in the afternoon. It's way more than the tea itself, but I've never enjoyed a tiny egg salad sandwich on white bread cut into a triangle more. I must say you sponge cake looks delicious!
ReplyDeletexo
annie
My fiance makes milk tea for us in the evening. I loved having his mother's milk tea in the morning when I visited them in India. The key is, no distractions in between adding the milk to the boiling tea and taking the tea off of the burner. Patience. Focus. Of course, I have none, so my milk tea scalds while I am off poking around in the fridge. This is why Arun is in charge of milk tea.
ReplyDeleteHis best friend Amit is from North India, so they have a different blend of tea leaves than families in Kerala use. We use the tea in the red box from the Indian store. No tea balls, no tea bags, just loose tea on a pot, then poured into a cup.
I drink gallons of it, and can handle anything from builders - one of my faves is Barry's - to Lady Grey
ReplyDeleteWelcome home, Tabitha! I'm more of a coffee girl but ever since I've moved to the UK, I've slowly gotten used to the taste of tea.
ReplyDeleteIn the mornings I have Orange juice and iced coffee. Afternoons I go back and forth between iced green tea and water. At night only water. But, being a southern girl, my drink of choice will forever be Luzianne sweet tea, but my butt won't allow me to partake in the sinfulness.
ReplyDeletebit of milk, topped with a full cup of tea and a bit of sugar swirled in.... and always accompanied by a hot scone with mounds of clotted cream & strawberry jam, if i can help it. :)
ReplyDelete