You think the english do bad coffee. Can I ask about the calculated insult presented by the rest of the europe to the english as tea ? Why is that the major drinkers of tea are the english, but in most of the only tea available is german ? German !!?? Have any of you tasted german tea ? Of course not, nobody drinks it, not even the germans. It's not meant to be drunk. It's just a joke brand made in a sawdust factory for europe to give to us as a way of saying "ferk off and take your sausages with you"
Seriously in Paris. Paris, now famously a couple of hours from London by jet propelled french railways, doesn't do english tea. Now I'm sorry, but that's got to be deliberate policy set down by government.
No wonder all brits carry PG Tips teabags around with them. keep to the Fen Causeway
As to why, I don't know. The Dutch make the best cocoa, and also sell the most. I guess the English were never much for producing and selling stuff to the mainland, that queer market of 400 million people that uses these strange measures.
They'll drink bark-shavings and lawn-clippings like PG Tips and like it.
It took me nine months of dedicated research, trying everything from local supermarket slop to oh-so-little-finger-posh Knightsbridge exclusives, to find a breakfast tea that was acceptable to a somewhat more discriminating palette.
The best tea I ever had was in a slightly arty cafe in Barcelona.
Tea is relative. And compared to the ubiquitous Finnish Liptons, anything is an improvement. But spare a thought for your colonial brothers. PG is where it at. You can't be me, I'm taken
Two effete Wiltshire sommelier's tea bags steeped for half an hour should put most people on hyper for the rest of the day.
That's why I drink it, anyway. That and I quite like the taste, too.
"There's one thing in this whole wide world, i sure would like to see, that's when that little love of mine, dips her donut in my tea."
The Band
Skennah Kowa
But we use multi-lensed POVs here. Are we talking cultural, chemical, physiological or semantical? To describe something as 'tea' is merely a limitation upon categorization. 8 -) You can't be me, I'm taken
Call me biased, but the best tea I ever had was in Darjeeling.
Question is, what sort of Darjeeling ? single estate ? Blend (consistent) soth facing, north facing. Believe me, go to Harrods food hall and you can buy such diversity and they're very interesting (s facing slightly more floral - n facing more body and tweak of bitterness)
But I moved towards Assam hits for everyday drinking. My perfect breakfast tea is Orange Pekoe/Keemun tea mixed with Lasang suchong and left to brew for about 20 - 30 minutes. That's a wake up call. keep to the Fen Causeway
<raises head above parapet> I used to get decent tea from Marks & Spencer's Food Hall, but then they decided to close all their foreign operations so that was shot. Recently it's become easier to get direct imports from England in the supermarkets, Typhoo or PG or Taylor's of Harrogate. The thing is it must be packed in England and not have a word of French on the pack.
Just like there shouldn't be a word of English on the coffee... <ducks again> When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind
With that, I'm off to Dunedin.
you are the media you consume.
