An Englishman and His Tea
As an Englishman I know without a shadow of a doubt certain unshakable truths. The sky is blue, buses and phone boxes are red, cricket is the sport of gentlemen, a mince meat pie at Mrs McGilligan’s Pie Shop will always cost two shillings and most importantly of all; there is no disaster that cannot be solved by a good cup of tea. The British Empire was built on tea. The humble tea bag cannot be improved upon. It is the pinnacle of hot beverage, backbone, courage and English honor making technology. It will never change.
Or so I thought. Now I don’t know which way is up or down, left or right. I simply do not know what to believe any more. It seems that like most things in this crazy modern world tea making technology has moved on.
This “latest innovation in tea making,” otherwise known as the T-Stick (there goes English grammar and spelling as well), was given to me instead of a tea bag just the other day when I requested a cup of tea at Rotterdam train station. At first I thought the young lady was placing the paper sashay of sugar in to the boiling water and embarrassed myself by trying to stop her. This “improvement” is a fine example of the kind of anarchy that happens when we let young people listen to their Beatles and their David Bowies.
Honestly! What would the queen say if she knew?
I’d never heard of instant tea (ok, maybe iced tea which is more of a koolaid). What could you do to tea to make it easier to make than putting in a bag? Or stick in this case.
haha, the Indian version of tea or ‘chai’ as it is called is quite complicated in making..I was surprised to see a tea-bag replacement for that to begin with..I wonder if there will be a T-stick..:)
Hey nice Blog! I’m from the UK too and have lived here for 5 years. I work in a UK team that only has native english people and guess what we just ran out of proper tea bags! Mayday!
We also have loads of UHT mini packs of milk for tea purposes. There is also a trick with the coffee machine, where you push coffee with milk and quckly pull the cup away after the milk dispenses.
Here’s to praying someone brings in thier own stash from home tomorrow.
Amanda – a good few years ago someone came up with instant tea, in exactly the same way as you get instant coffee. It was water soluble granules that when you add hot water to it tasted of something probably only the Americans could call tea.
The girlfriend (Stu’s, not mine) – If you drink “Pickwick English Blend”, then it’s made by none other than Douwe Egberts, who I’m sure you’ll know are just as Dutch as Philips and C&A :)
So yes, there is Dutch tea. Even if it’s trying to pass itself off as English. (I say, it’s just not cricket ! Confound the dastardly blighters!)
Hahaha !! I agree with Aledys: sacrilege. Probably so wrong as having wine in a plastic cup…
Oh dear, I am surrounded by tea snobs! Oh wait, there is a three-headed monkey! :P
Gez, You are right, today i tried the (Dutch) English tea and earl grey. Both (literaly) pale in comparison to PG tips, Tetley and Yorkshire Tea.
To make maters worse the PG tips monkey I have pinned up in my cube is mocking me!
Even Mrs. Corver (who’s Dutch) has become a tea snob. She’s even started going off the rank stuff some of her friends try and pass off as coffee!
Ash – Yes… *cough* Who would drink tea with out milk *cough* Most un-British *looks worried*
Alison – In Scotland wouldn’t that be tea with whiskey?
The girlfriend – My Dad would never let us get married if he knew you felt so about milk in tea :p
Amanda – It’s just laziness me thinks
thamarai – I would not be surprised
Corver – Welcome to the blog. Running out of tea bags is the biggest disaster that can ever befall a man or woman. It is actually the one disaster that a cup of tea can not solve because you have no tea. then again once you have tea it is solved so tea can still kind of solve it.
Gez – What I don’t get is why they felt the need to invent it. Why add hot water to powder when you can just add a tea bag to hot water. How dose it help?
Anita – And beer in plastic cups
Anneke – Where?!
Yeah the disaster solving properties are true!
Quote from “A bridge too Far”
Corporal Hancock: Sir. [Offers mug of tea.]
Major General Urquhart: Hancock. I’ve got lunatics laughing at me from the woods. My original plan has been scuppered now that the jeeps haven’t arrived. My communications are completely broken down. Do you really believe any of that can be helped by a cup of tea?
Corporal Hancock: Couldn’t hurt, sir. [Urquhart accepts his mug of tea.]
It always wors in Eastenders too.
Its ok because its home time, and (shhht) i have a secret emergency tea supply at home.
Please stop referring to this product as tea. It’s taboo. Teaboo.
What will the Chinese people think about this??? They started this whole tea thing right??? So it doesn’t matter which company makes the tea bags…it’s all a rip off anyway ;P
And BTW… the Irish drink the most tea in the whole of Europe ;P What do you think about that!!!
Corver – I hope for your sake that it is well hidden since you just announced it to the whole tea drinking Internet.
Kiki – It’s te(a)rrible
The girlfriend – I think it sounds like a challange :p
@Stu- beat the Irish?? You know i already did!!! ;P
I’m staying out of this one :p