David's
Mental Meanderings 9th September 2000 Ever
since that big costume party in Boston in 1773, most Americans haven't had a good
cup of tea. Somehow it always tastes like it was made with water from Boston Harbor.
Thomas J. Lipton may have been an Englishman, but you would never know it
by the product that bears his name. It's not
that hot beverages are not popular in the States. Even in the muggy American South
coffee is quite popular. And let me be the first to say God bless that fine American
who discovered that tea is great over ice (without adding milk, of course). For
all the great things about Britain, you can't get a glass of iced tea during that
week of the year when it is temperate enough to warrant. (I've no need to think
about that for another year. September is here and high temperature today was
a seasonal 66°F.) I'm inclined to think that
American companies get their tea from Britain. It appears that the British sort
through the tea leaves and take the good stuff. What's left a pitiful dust
is sent to the States. If you open up tea bags from each country you will
immediately notice a big difference. In the 1970s,
Twinings made it's way onto the shelves of American supermarkets. At an average
cost of about 10¢ per bag you can make a decent pot of tea. You can even get fancy
blends sold as "English Breakfast," "Irish Breakfast," etc.
For 3¢ per bag, I can buy a better quality tea with no pretentious adjectives.
And if you read the box carefully you will see that Twinings is actually prepared
in North Carolina and sold under license. You can get Twinings here (once I even
visited their little London shop where it all began), but I don't actually know
anyone that buys it. Nope, I drink P.G. Tips,
featuring the famous pyramid bags and television commercials with talking chimps.
Well, famous over here anyway. The Brits do drink
coffee, but tea is an integral part of the culture. When American workers have
a morning coffee break, English workers have a tea break, even though they may
drink coffee. (Actually, when American workers are having a morning coffee break,
their British cousins are stuck in afternoon rush hour traffic, but that has more
to do with time zones than beverages.) The tea break is a much older custom than
the coffee break, as it has been around for about 200 years. And
of course Americans do not have an evening meal called "coffee." Here
we eat breakfast, lunch and tea. We might also have "supper," if it
is after 9:00. (Supper at our house invariably consists of a toasted cheese sandwich
and a cup of tea.) In 1999, the UK population
aged 10 and over drank 2.95 cups of tea per day. (I suppose that .95 bit is when
there isn't quite enough left in the pot to fill a cup.) They only drank 1.51
cups of coffee (and the .51 may have something to do with those weird coffee pots
with the push down filter that are used here). As
a nice bonus, tea is healthier than coffee. It contains about half the amount
of caffeine. It does not tend to eat at your stomach lining or other tender internal
body surfaces and it better for your kidneys. It has also been suggested that
certain chemical compounds in tea inhibit cholesterol, heart disease, and pancreatic
and prostate cancer. It contains fluoride and is good for your teeth. It has virtually
no calories (until you add milk and/or sugar). The
positive benefits of tea were noticed from the time of its introduction into Britain.
Tea was first recorded in England in 1658, when a merchant, Thomas Garraway, advertised
tea for sale by auction. Mr. Garraway promoted tea as virtually a universal curative,
claiming it would "maketh the Body active and lusty ... helpeth the Head
Ache, giddiness and heaviness thereof ... good for Colds, Dropsies and Scurvies
and expelleth Infection". As I sit here
drinking what on this side of the pond is referred to as a hot cuppa (and completely
free of dropsy or scurvy, I might add), I realize that many of you are baking
in the summer sun. As you wait patiently for cooler weather, may someone find
you a cold glass of iced tea. |