Jan 25 2009
in which americans don’t know how to do tea
As I mentioned in an earlier post, tea is kind of an integral part of British culture. (”Kind of”? Okay, who am I kidding, it is an integral part of British culture.) Everybody drinks tea there; it’s just as ubiquitous as coffee here, if not more so. Any place offering free refreshments and even some that aren’t will probably give you tea. I bought tea at a few places but I got it free every week at church, World Cafe, and the church small-group/Bible study. It’s a thing. People offer you tea. And when they do, they almost always automatically ask if you want it with milk, to which my answer is always yes, and then I add a couple packets of sugar.
This is how you do tea. Milk and sugar. Okay okay, I know some people like it better with cream or whatever, but milk and sugar is a very basic way to do tea that is simple and good and comforting (also caffeinated, which is important when you’re pulling an all-nighter), and in England you can get it that way, no problem. I even asked for tea with milk on the flight from London and got it. The very next flight, on the same airline, between (I think) Cincinatti and Salt Lake City? Well, they had tea, but no milk. Just those weeny little individual creamer-cup things. In America, generally speaking, that’s the way it is: they have to ask you what kind of tea, for one thing, rather than assuming you want black tea (yes, there are other flavors available in Britain, but if you’re just talking “tea,” the kind that comes to mind is normal black tea, in which you’re almost expected to put milk), and chances are all you can put in it is half-and-half or creamer which doesn’t do as much to cool it down, blunt the bitterness, or add body to the tea, all of which milk does, especially since I personally don’t want to add as much of something that is high in calories for no real purpose. And then if you’re lucky you find a packet of sugar, and if not artificial sweetener which is nasty.
Starbucks has actual milk. Most places, not so much. And at least for me, I have zero patience with most kinds of tea served here: it smells good but has just barely enough flavor to taste weird. Give me British-style tea any day.
