Except that our love of traditional tea is now declining and people are opting for other drinks instead. Like herbal tea, fruit tea and green tea. Or of course coffee. Youngsters in particular are shunning traditional tea, which some see as an old person's drink.
Well, tea consumption isn't slowing down in our household. We drink five or six cups of tea a day and only one or two cups of coffee. I used to have the occasional herbal tea though I still preferred the real thing, as it were.
When we're staying in hotels there's never enough tea in our room and invariably we nip out to get extra tea bags (except at Premier Inn where you can help yourself to as many tea bags as you want).
Luckily we don't live in the 17th century, when tea was still very expensive and only the wealthy could afford it. Also the first tea cups didn't have handles, which only became the norm in the 18th century.
Iced tea may seem new, but it's anything but. It was praised by the Irish novelist Marguerite Countess of Blessington in the 1820s and rapidly became popular. But iced tea is not for me, I like my tea hot.
If I have to go too long without tea, I feel seriously deprived. I just love the taste.
Nick, we are coffee drinkers even Saïd who grew up with tea, but we love the Oriental Tea from Mariage Frères a very famous tea shop all over the world and for our friends loving tea we will always offer a sortiment of different teas.In the Northern Islands (Friesische Inseln) in Germany , you cannot escape from tea , they drink tea day and night with special sugar (Kandis) and very often a splash of wipped cream.
ReplyDeleteHannah
Hannah: I'm not familiar with Mariage Frères. I don't remember them from our time in London. Tea with sugar and cream sounds horrible. Not for me, thanks, though I do need a dash of milk.
DeleteAssortment not sortiment!
Blasphemy! Heresy! I drink tea all the time, even being one generation removed (born in the US, but parents were from England) -- I grew up with it.
ReplyDeleteThe proliferation of perversions of tea is a vexatious thing in offices when I'm on a job. The break rooms are stocked with endless varieties of herbal tea, chamomile tea, lemon tea, duck-billed platypus tea, and what have you -- but plain old regular tea is often in short supply. And for some unknown reason it tends to get all used up quickly once I start working there.
Infidel: It's hard to keep track of all these proliferating varieties of tea. Plain old regular tea is fine by me. And all my workplaces always had healthy stocks of it.
DeleteYou only consider black tea to be ‘real’ tea? I do love black tea, but I don’t consume caffeine anymore, so I only drink green and herbal teas these days.
ReplyDeleteBijoux: Oh, calling it real tea was slightly humorous. Every tea is "real" of course. A lot of people nowadays seem to be eschewing (that word again) caffeine.
DeleteLiving in a coffee producing country, tea is a rarity...and what you can find is usually some flavoured abomination, so I rely on friends muling in loose tea when visiting from the U.K. or the U.S. as tea is the only hot drink that hits the spot.
ReplyDeleteHelen: Amazing that decent tea has to be smuggled into the country.
DeleteI drink tea, but much more coffee. We always have a cup of tea after lunch. Coffee is my morning drink, tea is afternoon.
ReplyDeleteSandra: I have a couple of cups of coffee during the morning. The rest of the day I prefer tea.
DeleteMy mother had a cup of tea every morning but then drank iced tea the rest of the day. She would agree with you that all those other "teas" are perversions. I'm not sure why I didn't grow up to be a tea drinker. I will drink it but simply don't make it. But I NEVER drink coffee.
ReplyDeleteLinda
Linda: I wouldn't say those other types of tea are perversions, just different sorts of tea. So how come you never drink coffee? You just don't like the taste?
DeleteMy first taste of coffee was Grandma's leftover dinner coffee reheated for breakfast. I hated it so much I can't even eat mocha flavored anything to this day.
DeleteLinda
Linda: That's a shame. Childhood experiences can be very formative.
DeleteI drink tea a lot. I like regular black tea, Earl Grey, Lady Grey and English Breakfast tea.
ReplyDeleteMary: I'm familiar with Earl Grey but I've never encountered Lady Grey. Must track some down and give it a try.
DeleteI limit myself to 4 cups of tea well before 6pm, otherwise I'd never get to sleep! No caffeine after 4pm. I have a Vanilla tea in the evening, and drink no coffee.
ReplyDeleteHowever, back in the day I might have drunk up to 8 cups a day. I love tea, I always will.
Sx
Ms Scarlet: I have no problems getting to sleep, my problem is waking up very early - 4.30 or 5.00. Caffeine doesn't have any adverse effects on me at all.
DeleteOther than you're waking up very early!!!
DeleteYou are probably right though as your body is probably used to your caffeine consumption.
Sx
Ms Scarlet: I suspect some bad childhood experience at 4 or 5 in the morning is what wakes me up so early. Or so a psychotherapist would no doubt tell me.
DeleteI drink tea with breakfast and supper.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm basically an oldie at heart.