Hot tea
I've been studying, and studying, and STUDYING for a professional certification exam I have on Monday, and hot tea's been accompanying me. At night, it's decaf or herbal. During the day, it's 6-minute steeped caffeine to the rescue.
I've had decaf British breakfast, which an interesting side-note. The tea is Tetley's, which is British, but upon further investigation of the box, I notice "A TATA Industries company ." TATA? Isn't that the same Indian company that's making those $2,500 mini-cars, The Nano? YES! It is indeed an interesting example of globalisation, and quite ironic that an Indian company is buying up a British company. That reminds me of an intersesting book I just read, The Post-American World. It's written by an Indian-American author, so there are plenty of parallels between the British Empire and America's current dominance.
Anyway, back to food/drink. Oh wait, I can't get away from the topic of India since I've been drinking a ton of chai tea lately. Stash makes a great decaf and regular version. I let it steep about 6 minutes (I like tea to be strong), add 2 or 3 spoons of sugar and then a splash of milk. A former boss of mine noted how he didn't like milk in hot tea, or hot tea much for that matter. I teased him that perhaps it's a "nasty British habit." Still, I love the taste of hot tea with a little milk in it, especially chamomile tea. Chamomile, plus a little milk and honey (literally, not just in the Biblical sense) usually puts me or Erin right to sleep.
Finally, one last note I'll make about hot tea is that it's "proper tea." By that, I allude to my summer working in a youth hostel in Boston, where about half my co-workers were Irish. The girls would gather around for a pot of Bewley's and wrinkle their nose at my thirst for sweet iced-tea (blame my Georgia upbringing, and my step-mom Judy would be so proud of me now to know that I actually like sweet iced-tea), saying, "That's not proper tea." "Well," I'd tease them, "when you grow up in a sub-tropical climate, 90 degrees and humid, hot tea's just not what you want." I suppose if it's constantly overcast, about 50-65 degrees and the peat fire's burning low, then heat tea is in good order. : ) No offence to any Irish, English or Australian friends (even those of Irish descent, Sinead!)
I've had decaf British breakfast, which an interesting side-note. The tea is Tetley's, which is British, but upon further investigation of the box, I notice "A TATA Industries company ." TATA? Isn't that the same Indian company that's making those $2,500 mini-cars, The Nano? YES! It is indeed an interesting example of globalisation, and quite ironic that an Indian company is buying up a British company. That reminds me of an intersesting book I just read, The Post-American World. It's written by an Indian-American author, so there are plenty of parallels between the British Empire and America's current dominance.
Anyway, back to food/drink. Oh wait, I can't get away from the topic of India since I've been drinking a ton of chai tea lately. Stash makes a great decaf and regular version. I let it steep about 6 minutes (I like tea to be strong), add 2 or 3 spoons of sugar and then a splash of milk. A former boss of mine noted how he didn't like milk in hot tea, or hot tea much for that matter. I teased him that perhaps it's a "nasty British habit." Still, I love the taste of hot tea with a little milk in it, especially chamomile tea. Chamomile, plus a little milk and honey (literally, not just in the Biblical sense) usually puts me or Erin right to sleep.
Finally, one last note I'll make about hot tea is that it's "proper tea." By that, I allude to my summer working in a youth hostel in Boston, where about half my co-workers were Irish. The girls would gather around for a pot of Bewley's and wrinkle their nose at my thirst for sweet iced-tea (blame my Georgia upbringing, and my step-mom Judy would be so proud of me now to know that I actually like sweet iced-tea), saying, "That's not proper tea." "Well," I'd tease them, "when you grow up in a sub-tropical climate, 90 degrees and humid, hot tea's just not what you want." I suppose if it's constantly overcast, about 50-65 degrees and the peat fire's burning low, then heat tea is in good order. : ) No offence to any Irish, English or Australian friends (even those of Irish descent, Sinead!)
Tata also owns Jaguar and Land Rover.
ReplyDeleteAs the American son of an English mother, I grew up on hot tea and always had a thermos of it in my red plaid lunchbox at elementary school back in the early Sixties. We had some interesting scenes back then when the family would go to visit relatives in South Carolina - imagine a truck stop in the middle of the night with a waitress trying to be nice: "Waaal, honey, we kin heat up some ice tea for ya..."