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What would you like for afternoon tea?
- Thread starter EvelynW
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Nice of you to invite your mates round, Jaffa.
Twinings Everyday - (Well all day really...) Best tasting tea I've come across.
I found Twinings a little bland. Though that could just be the stuff they sell over on the side of the pond.
As do I. In general, I much prefer coffee to tea, so my afternoon beverage is usually coffee (sometimes espresso, sometimes filtered) along with some mineral water.
Is it acceptable to drink coffee for tea?
Yes, it is. Some of us do it all - or nearly all - the time.
Some of us refuse to drink coffee
Pluto, my friend, you don't know what you are missing.
Ah, yes. That brings to mind the splendidly irascible and wonderfully irrepressible Arthur Dent, on board the (stolen spaceship) The Heart of Gold when he demanded, not unreasonably, that the shipboard computers devote an unconscionable part of their resources to making him a cup of tea, real tea, from leaves, in a pot, that is......while disaster threatened elsewhere......
Mind you, when I first looked in on this thread, I had assumed that it referred to the delightful tradition of 'afternoon tea', served in a charming old world hotel, one of those places which inexplicably, despite being at least a century out of date, has yet to go bankrupt, in a setting of indescribable elegance where the afternoon tea is served with an exquisite attention to detail:
You know what I mean: the sort of thing which comes with properly starched linen napkins, tiered serving dishes replete with scones with clotted cream and home made strawberry jam; different tiers home to dainty little sandwiches, complete with trimmed crusts, and several fillings - an imaginative take on traditional treats; squat sponge cakes, oozing calorific excellence and sighing blissfully under their own weight; silver pots of hot water, tea, (and for the truly heretical such as myself), coffee (or, even hot chocolate, in the heights - or depths - of winter)......little jugs of milk, and others gleaming full of luscious satiny cream.......a fascinating little tongs resting on a strange little silver sugar bowl, the sort that stands, slightly unsteadily on its own little legs, perhaps.....
Now, it is my humble opinion that everyone should indulge in such a treat, such a sybaritic yet civilised treat at least once in their lives...preferably with a like minded friend.
However, I realised on reading the thread that it was not about this fantasy afternoon tea (which I have - on rare occasions when time cannot and is not allowed to intrude), but about rituals of drinking tea in the afternoon. A very different thing, methinks.......
Yep, I hate the taste of coffee
. I will sometimes drink tea when I need the caffeine or want a hot drink. Most of the time though, I drink tap water (I don't drink alcohol (not worth it if you have to drive and I'm always driving) and I'll only have soda if I'm out eating fast food).You see the thing is... if you're drinking a decent of cup of tea... things can't be a disaster not matter how bad they appear to everyone else.
That chap in the cartoon is clearly just ill. I think even dangerous radicals drink tea. Eric Blair (a dangerous radical if ever there was one) even wrote an essay on how to make tea. (The only time I stop drinking tea is if I've got a really nasty cold - probably to do with the milk, which before you all start is the proper way of drinking it.
)If you can plan ahead and you're visiting London tea at the Ritz is a showcase on how to do it the posh way.
You see the thing is... if you're drinking a decent of cup of tea... things can't be a disaster not matter how bad they appear to everyone else.
That chap in the cartoon is clearly just ill. I think even dangerous radicals drink tea. Eric Blair (a dangerous radical if ever there was one) even wrote an essay on how to make tea. (The only time I stop drinking tea is if I've got a really nasty cold - probably to do with the milk, which before you all start is the proper way of drinking it.
If you can plan ahead and you're visiting London tea at the Ritz is a showcase on how to do it the posh way.
What a lovely piece by Eric Blair - a man who could turn his exquisite pen to many varied (and equally well written and beautifully observed) topics.
As a fan of his writing, I'll read him closely and give consideration to his arguments, (the milk-first or tea-first division can be deep and bitter - I have seen it play out vehemently in households where husband and wife held violently opposing views on this matter), but I doubt, as I am a coffee lover, that ultimately, I will be swayed by him, much though I revere his prose style.
Ironically, the only time I willingly drink tea in large quantities is when I am ill with a nasty cold (as, inexplicably, I lose my taste for coffee), and vast volumes of scorching hot liquid (without sugar, per the cited article) hits the aching spot.
Re the Ritz and afternoon tea, someday, sometime, yes, (and planning ahead), that sounds like an extraordinarily good idea, not to say exceedingly civilised way to pass an afternoon.......why, thank you for that suggestion.