I must admit
that since coming to the USA in 1970 I have probably consumed 200 cups of
coffee for every 1 of tea. Tea was THE drink in my homeland, Wales. When I
worked there for the National Coal Board, we had two ‘official’ tea-breaks
every day. About 10:00 am each day, it was ‘down tools and go to the tea-room’
where Dai had a fresh brew for everyone in the office – about a dozen of us. A
similar ritual occurred about 2:00 pm, but then Dai delivered our ‘cuppa’ (a cup
of tea) to our desks. Truly a clockwork life in the arms of a Government
employer!
Maybe my
early ‘tea experiences’ in the USA is what steered me away from ‘the leaf’ and
to ‘the bean’. What was that C-change experience?
First, in
almost every restaurant ‘in the States’ there was the initial inquiry when
asking for tea: “Hot, or iced?” I had not only never heard of iced tea until I
crossed the pond, but I have never liked it. Have you ever had, or ‘made’, the
outdoor variety of iced tea - ‘sun tea’? I first fell afoul of it whilst
working in the ‘back-woods’ (perhaps ‘back-cacti’ is more apt) of New Mexico.
One of the guys I was working with produced a 4-gallon jar, threw in several
tea bags, poured in water from his ‘igloo’ cooler, and left on the tailgate of
his pickup to ‘brew in the sun’. We have a phrase in Wales, for something that
is disgusting – ‘Ych y fi’; ‘google’ it.
😉
Next, was
the way hot tea was usually made and served here in the USA: a small plate,
with a metal container of hot water with a teabag (and sometimes a slice of
lemon alongside it) was brought to the table. THAT is NOT the way to make - what
should be an aromatic elixir - but is transformed into a tissue-cocooned,
odorless bag of leaves immersed in hot (if you are lucky) water.
I should
note that as I child in Wales I had never even seen a teabag. For me, a tea-leaf's life began thus: it arrived – with a million or so others – from
China, Ceylon (that’s what it was known as in my day – before it became known as
Sri Lanka), or from India, in 24” x 24” x 24” plywood tea-chests that were
lined with ‘tinfoil’. At the grocer’s
shop, the leaves were scooped from that chest into a brown paper bag and
weighed on a see-saw type scale that had various sized brass weights on one end
and a metal bowl (into which the paper bag was placed) on the other end. Then, back at home, the contents of the paper
bag was tipped into a metal tin or canister – known as a tea caddy.
Having
become, over the years in this land across the pond, more frugal and less
purist, I began to buy my tea in those convenient ‘sachets’ - sounds more PC
than ‘bags’, eh? – rather than eke out loose tea vendors. But, more on that
later, but here a recommended way to make that perfect ‘cuppa’ - for 4 people:
1 - Pre-heat
your china (or ceramic) teapot and 4 cups, with hot water
2 - Put 5
cups of cold water into a kettle and bring it to the boil
3 - Empty the
hot water from the 4 cups and the teapot and put 5 teaspoons of loose tea (or 5
teabags if you are a Philistine) into the warmed teapot.
4 - As soon
as the kettle has boiled, pour the water into the teapot - do not overboil the
water; it loses its oxygen and freshness
5 - Stir the
pot well and let it sit for 4 minutes - using a tea-cozy (if you have one) to
keep the teapot warm
6 - Pour
your tea into your cup and, if you desire, add milk, lemon, sugar or honey
Note the
‘peculiarity’ stated above. Use 1 more teaspoon or teabag than the number of
cups you intend to make; this is known as ‘1 per person and 1 for the pot’.
Speaking of
tea-pots here is part of my collection:
IF you like
to drink your tea with milk, there are two schools of thought – one of which in
my book is absolute rubbish!
There is the
(rubbish) ‘MIF’ method and the (logical) ‘MIL’ method regarding tea-with-milk.
My sister-in-law, much to my chagrin, is an insistent ‘MIL’ tea-maker. I don’t
care if she takes HER tea that way, but I MUST have mine in the ’MIL’ manner. You
may have no idea what ‘MIF’ and ‘MIL’ are. It is quite simple: ‘MIF’ = ‘Milk
In First’ and ‘MIL” = ‘Milk In Last’. You
see, most people prefer ‘tea with a dash of milk’, not ‘milk with a dash of
tea’ - which is why I ALSO prefer that the dispenser of the milk additive be
ME. Unless the pourer of the ‘cuppa’ has
an immaculately trained eye and can perfectly assess (before the tea is poured
into the cup) the amount of milk to pour into the cup to produce the desired
color and strength of the resultant mix as YOU want it, I’ll say “No! I want it 'MIL' - and I’ll pour the milk myself, thank you very much!”
As if I weren’t
quirky enough, I usually prefer to have the milk heated too – so it doesn’t
cool the brew too much. I particularly recall always enjoying a hot cup of
‘chai’ after a spicy curry at one of the many Indo-Pak restaurants that I
frequented in my home town. Somehow, it seemed almost cathartic. Of course, it is the ubiquitous hot milk
content that makes chai so special; no wonder cows are considered to be sacred.
However, I don’t always drink my tea with milk added, especially when I occasionally
‘spice up’ my tea with various ‘concoctions’ from my local Indian grocery
stores. Here are a couple of those additives - first, a mixture of cinnamon
sticks, cloves, and coriander pods, and another
is a powdered spice mix:
There is a
bit of irony in that comment about hot tea that is too hot, because I recall when
as a child - of course, we were ‘less hardened’ then - a custom (at least, in
OUR house) was to ‘saucer the tea’ if our tea was too hot; we would pour the
tea into the saucer (there was ALWAYS a saucer in those days - unlike now) and
back into the cup as many times as would be necessary to cool it to the desired
temperature. I don’t think that practice would go down too well at Buckingham
Palace - even IF the ‘pinky finger’ was extended. Does anyone really do that ‘extended pinky-finger-thing’, I wonder?
Speaking of
‘tea-drinking-quirkiness’, my brother could easily top me! Back as far as 1956,
I recall him asking guests at home if they wanted him to serve them ‘high tea’
or ‘low tea’. If the response was for ‘high tea’, he would stand on a chair and
pour their tea into their cup which was sat on the table - two or 3 feet below
the teapot. ‘Once bitten, twice shy’ a guest would think and on any subsequent visit
would naturally ask for ‘low tea’ - expecting to have a normal dispensation of
their tea that time. But, NO; in that instance, he would place the cup on the
floor and pour the tea from waist height - still a 2 to 3 feet plunge for their
brew. 😉
Enough of
that nonsense. What type or brand of tea should you get? Experiment and settle
for what you like is the only answer I can honestly give. For me, I do not like
weak-looking teas, green teas, ‘funky-flavored’ teas – in short, I like a dark-colored strong tea. There are many varieties, some with strange names - such as
Orange Pekoe, Oolong, and Dahjeeling; the latter named
for the region in which it grew and was picked.
Now, even it has been subjected to numerous modifications – to
accommodate the dissimilar palette of the masses and their very similar
pocket-books/purses. Another popular ‘brand’ is ‘Earl Grey’ – a favorite of my
other (the non-quirky one of us) brother. Anyone who ever drank tea will surely
have also heard of Lipton’s, Tetley’s, Twining’s, Ty-phoo, and lots of brands,
and of course, you can ‘google’ each of those and hundreds of others for
yourself - as you can for these ‘lesser-known’ brands:
I was first introduced
to these by a couple of fellow ex-pats from Wales as we gathered to eat ‘bacon-butties’
(sandwiches with butter and ‘real’ bacon) and watch Six-Nations Rugby on a
(possibly) pirated TV-channel a few years ago. Do not be fooled by the names;
these teas are only blended and packaged in Wales; not GROWN on the Welsh
mountainsides – they are reserved for our beloved (do NOT even start with those
jokes!) sheep. The brands I refer to are ‘Welsh Brew’ and ‘Glengettie’ – each of which sells here for about $8 to $9 for a box of
80 bags.
However,
long before that, I had been introduced to Ireland’s favorite hot beverage – one
that even surpasses Irish Coffee with its whiskey and Baileys Irish Cream. I
refer of course to Barry’s Tea.
I wouldn’t
swear to it, but if you have ‘a bit of the Irish in ye’ you could persuade
yourself that it was named for that 18-year old martyr/rebel/patriot (you choose)
of 1920 – Kevin Barry. Of course, if you are Welsh, you could equally persuade
yourself it was named after King Barry of Wales. King Barry? Never heard of
him? Well, if you are truly Welsh – and
you have to be a rugby fan to make that claim – you will know I refer to Barry
John, the ‘King’ of WRU in the ‘60s and early ‘70s. Of course, even Barry’s tea
is now available in decaffeinated form. I find it interesting that removing an
integral part of a ‘pick-me-up’ results in it costing 30%+ more than the ‘real
thing’. Barry’s ‘full-octane tea’ costs about $8 for a box of 80 bags.
To
underscore that tea is also the darling of the Irish, as well as the British,
there is this variety from Twinings:
Though you
can buy teas in almost any grocery store in the USA, a greater variety (and
often the best source for some of those noted above) may be the ethnic –
particularly Indian or Pakistani - grocery stores. One of my favorite sources in St
Louis is ‘Global Foods Market’ in Kirkwood; another is any of the several 'Trader Joe' stores.
Of course, the cost of importing
our favorite treats comes at a cost. Here is a sample of prices I saw locally a
few years ago when the exchange rate was about $1.60 to the GB Pound
Sterling – so, a mark-up of about 240% to 320%.
Look at the pricing on this box of Tetley’s tea: The ‘regular’ tea - in
a 160-bag box - sells at $0.09 per ‘regular’ bag here versus $0.03 per bag
‘over there’.
The 40-bag ‘decaf’ box sells for $0.13 per bag here in the USA, versus $0.05 per bag ‘across the
pond’.
This 80-bag
box of Ty-phoo also costs $0.09 per bag here, but only $0.04 there – even only
$0.03 at that sale price. Note the 'decaf' Ty-phoo costs 33% more.
I can’t
recall whose brand it is – and I have yet to taste it.
The best
price - and even quality, in my book, is a blend I had not heard until I
spotted it at a Trader Joe’s here – an Irish Breakfast Tea.
I believe it
cost only $2.99 for an 80-bag box. Yes, I know, it is a ‘bagged’, not a
‘loose-leaf’ tea, but I also drink ‘instant coffee’ and MBI (the ‘Beast) so
shoot me if you must – but then bury me in a tea-chest.
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