I'm a Little Tea Pot

I have been enjoying living in the U.S. since we moved here several years ago. I try to keep my opinions to myself and behave as graciously as any guest might in someone else's home. However, I can hold my peace no longer. I'm sorry if I might offend anyone, but I just have to ask, with all due respect, in this land of so much bounty and advanced technology, why is it so difficult to get a decent cup of tea ?



The incorrect way to make tea


Ken attended a conference in Miami on the weekend. He stayed at a fairly upscale hotel. Upon his return I asked,"Would you like a cup of tea, dear?" He sounded like a man who had been lost at sea for weeks having survived by sucking sweat off his own arm, "Oh, PLEASE, Yes! I haven't had good cup of tea in DA-AAYS!" 

We have traveled far and wide across the nation. Rarely have we found a hotel or restaurant that serves a proper cup of tea. Even though we've mostly given up, on the occasions when we do order tea, say at breakfast in a nice hotel, and after we've explained, "Yes, HOT tea, please!" they'll bring a mug (your fancier places will bring a cup and saucer), a tea bag, and a little pot containing hot water. The tea bag has not yet met water. The water is not boiling. When we pour water over the tea bag in the mug, a thin ooze of tea color leaks out. It remains suspended in the mug. It could take an hour or more to actually get some flavor extracted with this method. I've seen people bob their tea bag up and down to get some action. I assume they are satisfied with the result as they then remove the bag after a few seconds and plop it on the saucer. I have also seen folks who sip while the bag is still in there! Oh, my.

A more correct way to make tea



Can anyone tell me why we rarely see the British tea-making method in the United States? Does it date back to that dust up in Boston Harbor in 1773? I understand the whole zeitgeist of evicting the British and all, but were decent tea drinking habits expelled along with them? Surely things have been patched up since then. We Canadians remained on pretty good terms with Britain in the ensuing years and look at us! We manage to make a good cup of tea. Was it an act of rebellion and independence that led to dunking insipid tea bags up and down in coffee mugs full of tepid water for three seconds saying, "No, really, we like it this way!"?

Not very assertive behavior if you ask me! Nothing like the shock and awe tea receives when you start with cold water in a tea kettle,bring it to the boil, pour it directly over your loose tea leaves or your tea bag in a tea pot, which has been warmed up previously with hot water, slap on the lid, snuggle the pot with a tea cozy and then bruise flavor the heck out of the tea leaves for the next five to ten minutes while your brew steeps. I fear the word "steep" was expunged from American dictionaries along with the tea in Boston Harbor.



An incorrect way to serve tea





A proper way to serve tea

Once you've brutalized your tea bags or tea leaves, serving becomes a much more genteel and soothing affair. Straining the leaves as you go or squeezing the last gasp of flavor from your tea bag with the back of a spoon, you pour steaming, clear amber liquid from your tea pot into a china cup which, properly, you have warmed up by rinsing in hot water. Lemon, milk, cream, honey or sugar may now be added and then delicately stirred with a tea spoon, preferably with your pinky finger extended. But not for too long - you do not want someone to send a irked glance in your direction because you've been clinking the cup too long. Also, banging the spoon on the edge of the cup is uncouth. You may lightly "tink-tink" your spoon against the rim of the cup and then lay it down ever so gently on the saucer. Now sip. And drink in the nuance and solace of a tasty, flavorful, reviving cup of tea.

Honestly, people. Have you not been paying attention during Downton Abbey?


My afternoon tea steeped 5 minutes in my little tea pot, short and stout.

 My sassy  tea cozy - made by Bernie Lyon, whose illustration is on the header of my blog.