Tea - best drink of the day?

Tea is an essential element of the beginning and end of the day, a pick-me-up in the afternoon, a way to welcome visitors and I could not manage without tea.

As a child every grocer’s shop smelt overwhelmingly of tea. It arrived from Ceylon India and Africa in big chests which Grandad could turn into a child’s bedroom furniture with a little imagination and some Fablon, and it was sold in a brown paper bag, by weight.

There was a ritual involved in making tea, not just a simple matter of dropping a teabag in a cup then adding boiling water, milk and sugar optional.

The kettle was boiled - often on a trivet in an open fire, on an Aga or if you were very modern, on a freestanding gas hob, part of a gas oven hob and eye level grill setup.

Just before the water boiled, the teapot was warmed with water from the kettle, which would be emptied out after the kettle has boiled, at which point the boiling water was added to the teapot. A teaspoon of tea per person and one for the pot was added to the teapot and the tea was left to brew for 5 minutes or so.

Milk and sugar were added to each teacup whereby a debate would ensue, Does the milk go in first or last? I would always put sugar in first then tea then milk, ensuring the sugar was dissolved and the tea was the right colour and strength, but this always caused controversy.

Sugar in those days arrived in a blue paper-covered rectangular block which we (the children) would bash with a wooden rolling pin to achieve granules. Sugar cubes were available but granulated sugar came later. There were no artificial sweeteners then. Milk was delivered to the doorstep in a glass bottle by the milkman, with an inch and a half of cream on top unless the birds got to it before you.

The used tea leaves would be thrown onto the compost heap if you had a garden, down the sink if you didn’t. We now know that they added no nutritional value to the soil but those were the days when nothing was wasted.

Now the teabag rules in many households and I must say it is much easier, especially when I am not quite awake or not quite asleep.

It is a little disappointing, given the labour that goes into growing, harvesting, packing and transporting this magnificent plant, that being encased in a plastic non-biodegradable paper square should be its demise.

Jean Taylor