Everyone likes a cuppa in bed in the morning...even the Queen.
Any excuse for a get together, has always been the way.
A special high tea. You couldn't eat one of these every week.
I love pretty, bone china cups, but for goodness sakes, two mouthfuls and it's gone.
Warm, school milk....ugggg
Coffee.......sorry for swearing, is drunk late morning, when I finally get out of the house to buy a proper cup. I it's only time I say 'no' to tea. Having no fancy equipment to make proper coffee the right way myself at home, out of the house is best. Go to a busy cafe, where there is plenty of life. It's a treat, just to have the one cup. Normally it's an Americano I choose, for the uninitiated, it's a black coffee. I prefer mine with a small jug of hot milk, I do like my hot drinks, scalding hot. Besides, I like the routine, and I like being out, watching the world go by, drinking my treat...coffee.
At lunch it's water, I am not a drinker really, so no great need for wine. Wine, to me is a sociable thing to drink. Well, actually alcohol, of any kind, is a sociable drink. I think if you are a solitary drinker, you are in trouble. Although thousands might disagree with me. I like something special going on to enable me to enjoy the ritual of sharing the bottle. A ritual even better with nice glasses, friends, and laughter. There has to be the right ambience to make the most of alcohol. The only other time it has to be alcohol, is at times of sickness, like last night. I couldn't sleep, I became gradually more, and more unwell, and uncomfortable. At such times, I must have a little brandy, or even spiced rum in hot water, with a drizzle of honey.....ahhh. That does the trick. For bad colds, or flu, it's a hot toddy. That with the addition of lemon juice, sip slowly, relax, and hope to sleep. If not, at least you have had an enjoyable ten minutes or so. If you're lucky it takes the edge off the malady too, whatever it may be. Perhaps that was always the way, poorly or not. Any excuse to gather together for a drink.
After lunch, its another cuppa. Sometimes, not immediately, but way before five..ish. If it's a special treat, we may go out for high tea. Another ritual, well, I'm beginning to see a pattern here...rituals, I realise I have more than a few. Nothing wrong with that, they hold society together, don't they? After that, its a cuppa several more times during the usually, fairly short evening. Just whenever I fancy one, or I'm offered a cup. I don't mind who makes it, it's always a treat. At bedtime, I like to take one to bed with me. When, like this, I sit with my iPad, drinking tea, and composing prose. Bliss.
I certainly have my little rituals, my likes, and dislikes of course. I can't enjoy tea, (white, no sugar) unless it's piping hot. It has to be scalding, as if it's been 'boiled on sticks' as they used to say. I seldom drink the entire thing, as before I can reach the bottom of the cup, it gets too cold. I can't abide lukewarm tea. Once the scalding element has gone, it's 'had it' as far I am concerned. The thing is, with tea, unlike coffee, you cannot possibly add hot milk. It's just not the done thing at all.
I have cups, or rather mugs I especially like. Tall, and thin, fine china, as that shape, and material holds the heat for longer than anything else. I can't abide thick china, or cups that are too small. Purely because it's almost impossible to drink a good portion before you are near the bottom of the cup, and it's cold. Which brings me to how it's brewed. Once you had to have a teapot, and I like the ritual, I like rituals. But today, everyone I know drinks out of mugs, and makes the tea in the mug too, with good old tea bags- Brooke Bond for me. Nothing wrong with brewing it like that. It doesn't get to be orange, and tannin saturated in the mug. I don't like dishwater, but I do like it to have colour, not too dark, not too much milk. There is an optimum colour, I find.
Mugs, it's true, but a far trendier Chinese tea kettle.
Tea is welcome almost any time of the day. If you look back through British history, in any emergency, or. crisis...make a cup of tea. Of course we know it did not originate here. As far as I know, we don't grow tea in the UK. it's India, Ceylon, even China, but we adopted it so long ago. It's ours now...English! No, tea is always a success, as long as I don't taste the milk.....uggggg ripe milk, over ripe milk. Nasty. It takes me back to schooldays, and the force feeding of sun warmed milk, to helpless infants. Meeee.....usually. Now that was gross! No wonder I still don't like milk.
However, having said all that, if you, or someone else ever offers me a cuppa, I would be so pleased, that I would accept it served in anything clean, and almost any colour, or thickness. Ahhhh, it's the panacea that gets me through the day.
What can I say, I'm English. We are perculier like that.
Do you fancy a cuppa?
Yes please!
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