Tea
America: land of coffee.
One of the hardest things about moving here is resigning yourself to the fact that you’re unlikely to find a decent cuppa unless you brew it yourself. Chai Latte? Almost certainly. But good, strong builders’ tea is way out.
There are, of course, historical reasons for this. I doubt that the whole mad King/taxes/Boston harbour/big freaking war thing really helped tea in its status as a Big American Drink.
Still, there are advantages to this. There’s no easier way to play the ‘quaint Englishman’ card that to stick a teabag in a cup of hot water and dump some cow juice on top. Honestly, it gets people here cooing over how great Englishness is in the same way a belly rub makes a dog’s hind leg shake.
Now, where’s my box of PG Tips gone…?
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January 13th, 2005 at 5:45 am
Well, what a big move! I’ve only just caught up on your great news (being somewhat out of the London loop since I had the little one!).
The Other Half and I went to San Francisco a few years ago. He, like you, enjoys “proper” tea. We found the Pergamino on Columbus used to have tea-bags – just general variety ones (rather than Earl Grey and English Breakfast, which, the OH informs me, don’t make “a proper mug”.) Anyway details below.
http://www.usrg.com/drg3/san_francisco/r/37/r3722.html