Picture the scene if you will:
You have come home from a tough day at work, or from doing the shopping, or having finished a particularly gruelling task. . .
You put the kettle on (or some kind person does it for you) and in next to no time you are sitting back in a comfortable armchair with a nice cup of tea. With perhaps a biscuit or two. What a blissful picture.
There is nothing quite like a nice cup of tea. It has many benefits which you can read about at the excellent UK Tea Council site.
Ahhh, the aesthetics of tea.
It is a comforting drink. It is a safe haven, even for a short while, in the midst of earthly trouble.
And by the way, when I say tea I mean tea, not tisane. I also mean served with milk and/or sugar, or lemon - in a cup with a saucer and a teaspoon.
Tea in a mug is not really acceptable unless you are in the midst of some form of outdoor manual labour, when a sturdy mug is more convenient and less likely to get broken - as in this worthy 1940s policeman having a well earned break.
However, never ever take tea in a paper cup or worse, plastic! In both cases the 'container' imparts an unpleasant taste, not to mention the aethetics of it all!
I was once in Paris with AGA and went to a Starbucks where I was given a huge plastic cup of tea with a lid on it and space for a straw! To say that I felt affronted is putting it nicely. Mind you it was Starbucks and they normally serve coffee so what could one expect. . .
Somebody once said to me: 'Sir George, just how does one make a perfect cup of tea?'
Nothing could be simpler.
Take a nice round, brown tea pot. Boil water in a kettle. Take the tea pot to the kettle and pour in a small amount of the boiling water. Swirl it around and pour it out. Spoon in an appropriate amount of tea leaves. The water in the kettle should remain at a rolling boil. Take the tea pot to it and pour in the boiling water.
Put the lid on quickly.
Now leave for a space. Some say two minutes and other say two. As a Catholic I would recommend the 'Hail Mary' method. A good, sensible, Catholic way of making tea. Turn the teapot clockwise while reciting three Hail Marys by which time the tea is not only ready but you have recited three prayers in honour of the Immaculate Conception!
Having let the tea infuse you swiftly pour a little more of the hot water into the nice china teapot, swirl it around and tip it out. Take a strainer and pout the tea from the first tea pot, through the strainer and into the second teapot. Pop the lid on, place a knitted tea cosy over it and voila, perfect tea is ready for serving.
Always use two teapots when making tea so that you do not end up with stewed tea. Stewed tea is worse than coffee!
Oh thrice blessed, wonderful tea, how I do love thee!
NB: the pictures came from the Mary Evans Picture Library.
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