Welcome Haidy, a tea-drinking English woman in New York. She'll be contributing some words on tea over the next few weeks as we do our best to enjoy the last cool days of the season.
It took me a little longer than most British people to really get the hang of tea. When I was growing up, tea was just something that went on in the background whilst I was racing around, playing with my friends. Later, lying on my boyfriend’s mattress staring up at a Smith’s poster he had attached to the ceiling, whilst he and his friends played Atari computer games.
The Tea Lady: Part I, Builders' Tea
We were always drinking cups of tea, but only when I arrived at University did I really understand why.
That first day after our parents had left, people moved from door to door in the college introducing themselves and inviting their neighbours in for a cup of tea. Each term, the first thing to be unpacked was the kettle and mugs, and the first thing we did was run to the corner store for teabags, chocolate digestive biscuits and milk.
Unlike coffee, which is supposed to be drink quickly (think espresso), tea is supposed to be sipped slowly, with accompanying morsels of food, both sweet and savoury. Tea invites contemplation and conversation, the savouring of flavour and of company and distils friendship into a companionable hour, tea-time (which in England usually takes place twice a day, at 11 and at 4).
Since moving to New York, I have been increasingly dedicated to keeping a little part of each day for tea-drinking, to stop in the middle of work, boil the kettle and invite those around me to pause and drink a cuppa. Unlike office drinks and dinner parties, tea-time lasts the length of a cup, but it’s an important chance to take stock of the day, to develop closer relations with those around you, to find out what people are really thinking and doing.
Builders' Tea: Moving house is a huge effort, and inspired by British builders who will not work in a house without a kettle (and who drink tea made with two tea-bags per mug and with three or more sugars), tea-breaks are a good way of structuring the hard work of painting, unpacking, cleaning and organising. My favourite is PG Tips, the best-known brand of British tea, endorsed by Wallace and Gromit. It’s a blend of Indian and African teas bought with ethical trading policies. A smooth, mellow tea, works especially well with digestive biscuits or toast. In New York it can be bought at the kitschy British food stores, Myers of Keswick and Carry on Tea and Sympathy.
- Haidy
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Whatever the equivalent of omnivore is for a person that drinks tea all the time is I am one. Is it teaavore?
Steeps of late: honey roo, bengal spice, good eart original blend, south indian tea, and ginsing peppermint.
I remember when I recently moved into a new apartment the first thing I took with me was my kettle- only to be upset when I realized my stove was not working!
what is "south indian tea"??
Rasil:
There are a variety of South Indian teas:
1) I usually buy a blend of loose tea at my coffee shop that is labeled south indian tea. I think it is a mix of darjeeling and something else
2) at indian grocery stores you can find a box of red lable tea- it is indian and perfect
3) really any black tea will do just steep in water and add a good portion of milk and sugar.
If I am feeling really remenicent of my study abroad days in India I will heat up both water and milk 2 parts milk to 3 parts water, add cardomom pod, cinnamin stick, 8 whole cloves and black pepper corns, heat till on the verge of boiling. Add tea and steep for a while.
Finally add a nice mound of sugar to each glass.
to make the raw tea
For folks living in NE, you can get PG Tips at your neighborhood Shaws. My parents are British and I grew up drinking it ... got to have your "8 cups of fluids" per day!
When I visit family in Ireland, usually twice a year, my suitcase gets packed with Lyon's Gold Label. It's industrial-strength and a morning must. Later in the afternoon I'll switch to their decaf version, which is equally flavorful. Typhoo is tasty too :)
Bodum appears to have stopped making the IBIS electric kettle, my trusty tea-making friend. I adore the orange IBIS and want it to last forever .
i am very excited about the introduction of Tea Lady, Haldy. i first starting drinking PG Tips when i lived in london (but had always been a tea fan prior to that). but when i came back to chicago i had a hard time finding it. Cost Plus/World Market carries it, but the Indian grocery stores on Devon Avenue sell it in bulk and at lower prices. not all the Devon shops are priced the same, though, so it's worth stopping into a few to find the best deal (and a box that's not expired).
when we run out of PG Tips, even if there's other tea in the house, i always say "we're out of tea." that's how good it is.
rah rah for PG Tips! I love that tea. thanks haidy.
It's worth noting you shouldn't seep your PG Tips tea for very long or else it gets very bitter and pretty gross.
I love PG Tips, too. I especially love that pyramid shaped tea-bag that puffs up when you pour hot water over it.
But, if I'm wanting something hot but not as heavy - I switch to green tea or oolong tea. And in the evenings, I love drinking ginger tea (Yogi Tea is my brand of choice).
The weird thing about England is how BAAAD the coffee can be.
I agree about England's coffee, JenPDX. It kind of shocked me when i first visited.But now i get the pleasure of tea a bit more so my last visit I was inclined to be a bit more forgiving.
I love Haidy's observations about the small moment of introspection inspired by a cuppa (as my Scottish grandmother used to call it). I had a meditation teacher who used to intone, "BE THE TEA," challenging us to sit quietly with a cup of tea while it brewed, cooled to room temperature, and then was completely sipped. It was surprisingly rough!
I worked a summer job in London and caught the tea bug. It was so civilized to have tea served (the company was big enough to have its own refectory for tea and lunch) twice a day, in a formalized manner. A perfect cup would be sitting at my assigned seat, prepared to my liking, 2 sugars with lemon.
The lemon really made me stand out as one of the non-Brits in the office.
Whatever your choice, tea offers something for everyone. A few of my favorite:
Peppermint Tea - Excellent tea to have about 1 hour before sleep time. Mellows you out, sooths your digestive system and doesn't have one ounce of caffeine.
Chai Tea - The mix of spices that make up this wonderful brew is like having a calorie free dessert anytime of day. If possible, try to steam some milk and mix in with a bit of raw honey to taste.
White Tea - While I've been drinking green tea for years, it's only recently that I've learned about white tea and all its health benefits. In fact, white tea has 3x's more antioxidants than green tea (who knew?). The taste is similar and can be enjoyed in both caf/decaf strengths.
Finally, I've come across a wonderful little tea site that sells exceptional tea at a very reasonable price. Here's the link:
http://www.englishteastore.com/
Happy Tea Time!
TW
I am english through and through, despite being here in the US almost 13 years, and the tea habit never leaves you.... PG tips rule, wiht tesco's finest close behind...however, in defence of coffee - first of all, dont tar all english coffee with the same brush - try monmouth coffee(from the markets in london)and many of the fresh blends from local markets across the UK, and if all else fails, harvey nicks... and, as a wee point, french and italian coffee is better than anywhere else..
for the herbal tea drinkers, try London Herb and Spice Co. Blackcurrant Bracer - quite simply delicious!
Oh, we love PG Tips! I usually get our tea at Cost Plus, but they were out! So I had to settle for TyPhoo, which isn't too bad. I started drinking tea many years ago, when I met my dh who is Irish, but raised in England. (lol, I don't dare tell him that we're not drinking PG Tips!)
I agree, Yay for PG Tips! Now here's a heretical question--what do you drink at night, when it's too late for caffeine? Have you found a decaf english-style tea that's drinkable? I have yet to find one that doesn't taste watered down, which is a shame because I love to wind down the day with tea but don't love fruity herbal teas.
Tea, my favorite. Thank you for this, AT!
In Washington, DC, we have Teaism, a tea house with restaurant. Pure, loose and freshly imported. This placed changed my life from coffee addict to tea "normal." Try teaism dot com Yunnan Gold, ahhhhhh....
I am Canadian born, but my mom says she sees my British blood in me because of my love of tea (strong tea like my Grandpa used to drink). I'm wondering what you who have tried it think of the Mighty Leaf teas?
Sisero, I like Mighty Leaf teas, we sell them at the cafe where i work, and have fallen for the black jasmine brand. delicious.
Does anyone know of a store in NYC area where i can find Lipton Yellow Label? I just ran out and am desperate for a cup!!
For Emily the heretic--
I'm a fellow PG Tipper, and my decaf choice is Tetley's "British Blend" decaf in the round teabags. Note that you cannot substitute regular tetley's decaf-- gotta be the British Blend. I also drink Twining's English or Irish Breakfast, and I think the decaf versions are entirely drinkable. Here in the Boston area [when, oh when, can there be an AT focus on Boston?] all of these can be found in a well-stocked Stop & Shop or Shaw's supermarket.
(from fellow heretic, who can't do caffeine past five, but can't close the day without one last cup.)
Emily - if you want a good cuppa, but with less (or no) caffeine, steep your normal tea bag for about a minute, then throw out the water, refill and enjoy a tea with all the taste and much less caffeine. Caffeine is one of the first things that leaves the tea as it steeps. All the soothing properties come out after 3-5 minutes.
Cheers!
What cracks me up is when, as a Brit, you say that you don't like tea, or even when offered that you don't want a cuppa, people look at you horrified, as though you are an alien! they can't comprehend why it is that you wouldn't want a nice cup o' "rosy lee" (rhyming slang!). they shake their heads and mutter or simply ignore it and make you one anyway!
the other thing about tea is that it has to be drunk with milk (sugar is optional) but the milk is most definitely not! If there's no milk then it is only half-way to being tea! The notion that you would have tea without milk in the UK is anathema; you are clearly demented or foreign!
I work with a Hungarian chap at the moment and I can't believe how appalled I am when he gets up to make tea and asks "do you want milk in your tea?" I feel like screaming at him, "there's no other way to drink tea, you mentalist!" Do I care too much? Perhaps I need help! TDA - Tea-Drinkers Anonymous!
Growing up as a book-loving kid reading the classics, you can't help but be a bit of an Anglophile. CS Lewis, Dorothy Sayers, E. Nesbit, Beatrix Potter, Arthur Conan Doyle, Dickens, Austen, Gaskell, Herriott, Tolkien... Tea always seemed to be a basic backdrop and accessory to life in their books. I didn't drink it much until recently, though, and it seemed like one of those bookish cliches that had perhaps fallen by the wayside in real British life.
Then, a couple years ago, some friends were visiting - a professor from Oxford and his family. And indeed - every time we walked through the door of their vacation cottage, the first thing we heard was, "Want a cup of tea?" They gave me a box of excellent Twinings tea, really different from the Lipton stuff my mom drinks, and I was hooked. I read someone once who said that British veins run with milky tea.
Incidentally, I sympathize with the decaf thing - I can't have caffeine late either - so I get the stronger English Breakfast variety in decaf and steep it strong with milk and sugar. But I do like herbal, too - I drank that for far longer than "grownup" tea - anyone remember the old, old Celestial Seasonings' Pelican Punch? My mom used to make that for us and we'd sip it with spoons out of big mugs. I like some rooibos teas a lot - they have that more muscular flavor of regular tea without the caffeine.
matt, i love you for many reasons, including the fact that you care so much about the milk!
Matt -- how funny! As an American anglophile who only drinks tea (Yorkshire Gold, from Myers of Keswick), I get that same reaction when I tell other Americans that I don't drink coffee. Never had a sip of it in my life, as a matter of fact. "What??!!" they say. "Never had coffee?" and look at me with suspicion as if I were being unpatriotic.
Then they always ask "Don't you want to try some?" and shove their cup in my face. No, thank you, I don't want to try it. I like my tea very much and I have no need for coffee of any sort.
It strikes me that no one has mentioned the RIGHT way to make a cuppa -- tea bag in the mug and boiling water poured over it, then steeped for several minutes. I was once scolded by an English friend's mother, who was visiting New York, for taking the kettle off the stove when its whistle was starting to pick up, in its first, low stages. I was supposed to wait until it was roaring like a train! Americans just don't know how to make tea, apparently. (seriously, try getting boiling water at any restaurant or starbucks...)
Oh, anyone seen this site?
http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/
Tea and biscuit reviews.
I have to start each morning with Irish Breakfast tea from Taylors of Harrowgate (a blend of Assam and East African teas), it's strong and flavourful, just the thing to get me started.
Will have to try the PG Tips, but for another time of day, as I'm hooked on the Irish Breakfast. At work I drink one cup of coffee & then that's it for caffeine for the day.
I just can't start with coffee, too thick/oily first thing in the morning. And yes, tea with milk and sugar. (Was married to a Brit for 11 years and was shown how to make a proper pot of tea - warm the pot, # of scoops, tea cozy on pot, etc etc...good results though.)
aj & Ez, thanks for the tips!
Alex, I feel your pain! Trying to get a decent cup or pot of tea in a restaurant is such a desperately painful battle that I think I'm about to give up. I've never understood why those little metal pots of hot water they bring you with the tea bag only ever hold enough water for like... one and a half cups of tea. What is that? Make it one or two, but not one and a half! And getting milk to go with it before the tea's gone cold is another thing altogether.
It's almost enough to make me convert to coffee after dinner, but after all the cold, gritty espressos I've been served...
Katie, you can get Yellow Label at Kalustyan's.
http://www.kalustyans.com
I am an english tea addict (pg tips of course) living in France and similarly they have no idea how to make a proper cuppa here. The milk thing is a complete mystery to my neighbours! Have recently found out i'm pregnant and must cut down on the caffine so thanks for the minimising caffine tips!
Great comments everyone. I grew up here in the states, but my parents come from (former) Commonwealth countries (Hong Kong and India) so maybe that's why I've always taken my tea the British way--PG Tips, 2% milk, no sugar. I am also happy to let you all know that I've converted my boyfriend, a former 3 cup a day coffee drinker, into a voracious tea drinker. I've also popularized it with a few of my other coffee-drinking friends. It's a real shame that tea hasn't caught on more with American coffee drinkers. I think that a lot of people who enjoy the thickness/strength of coffee will also enjoy taking their tea British style.
My boyfriend has in turn started passing the tea habit on to some of his associates too, and now has his landlady drinking PG Tips twice a day! As you all already know, tea is so much better than coffee--it has less caffeine so it's still refreshing yet it keeps you awake, it doesn't give you bad breath, it doesn't corrode away at your stomach, and it doesn't smell like stale cigarettes.
I have one point for discussion though, everybody who discusses tea always seems to speak of PG Tips, but what about Tetley? Though I drink PG Tips several times a day because that's what's easy to buy here in California (every Indian market I've ever seen is always stocked full of PG Tips, for a lot cheaper than what they sell it at Cost Plus by the way), I prefer Tetleys. I'm talking about the Tetley from the U.K. that comes in a blue square paper sack that has "£1.69" written across the top of the pack. Please don't confuse t his with the "Tetley British Blend" tea bags that you can get at Ralph's or Safeway, or the Indian version from the Indian market...those are not the same thing. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Better yet, does anybody know where I can get the U.K. Tetley tea in Northern or Southern California? I prefer it to PG Tips. It's slightly lighter, and has a little bit less of a "bite" than PG Tips.
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