Daily Diversions (Web Log)

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.