Helen of A Was Alarmed generated a tea meme (from a coffee meme). Unrelaxeddad has done it too. Really, since I’m addicted to both beverages, I should do both, but I saw the tea one first.
Your first cup, when do you drink it?
As soon as I get to work, I put my bag down and go straight to the kitchen to make my first cup. I’m so impatient to get it, that the tea bag doesn’t stay in the cup very long, so it’s not especially strong tea. I’ve got an enormous mug (about 500ml, I guess) given to me by a former colleague who knew my addictions well.
How many cups a day do you drink?
Depends how busy I am. On a working day, the fewer meetings, the more cups, as I tend to go and make another cup as soon as I’ve finished the last one – maybe 6 or 7? I have a colleague who, as soon as I turn up at his desk for a chat, will immediately shepherd me into the kitchen for my cup, since he knows how addicted I am.
On the weekend, probably fewer, unless we’re hanging around at home.
Teabag or leaf?
Teabag – I’m too lazy for mucking around with teapots and strainers. And I tend to waft the teabag over the cup, so unkind people have been known to refer to the resulting brew as dishwater.
Milk and sugar?
Lots of milk, no sugar.
Your favourite way of brewing?
With my philistine tea drinking habits, I rarely brew tea properly. Maybe once every year or two for special occasions.
With whom do you prefer to enjoy your tea?
With a bunch of friends who all also drink tea. Sitting around on a weekend, chatting at one of our houses while the kids go mad with each other and a set of toys that they haven’t seen for a while. Back when we were at university together doing the same thing (but without the children), we all had tim tams (chocolate biscuits for my non Australian readers) but these days we don’t do enough exercise to eat as badly as we did then.
Your favourite tea?
English breakfast – fairly boring, really. If I’m out at one of those places that gives you serious choice, I’ll ask for Lapsang souchong, since it takes like a nice smoky fire (which I like). I hate Earl Grey, which is often the pretentious choice. That’s something that really does taste like dishwater, to me.
Where do you prefer to drink your tea?
At home in the kitchen, but most often I drink it at my desk at work.
What does your favourite cup look like?
Enormous pottery mug, given to me by a former work colleague who realised that an ordinary mug just wasn’t enough for my tea habits. It’s vaguely chinese looking, and very comfortable to drink out of. And distinctive enough that everyone knows its mine.
English Breakfast or Earl Grey?
English breakfast, definitely – see above.
Favourite occupation while drinking tea?
Working my way slowly through the Saturday paper curled up on the couch.
And I’ll add a question; Formative tea experience?
Even though I used to mock them at the time, I learned my tea drinking habits from my father and grandmother (his mother). Never seen in a relaxed spot without a cup of tea nearby, never quite finishing the last cup before pouring another to make sure it’s nice and hot and, crucially, making the tea so weak that you barely realised it was tea. I think it was their scottish ancestry.
My boss insists that her tea is is basically nothing more than a bag dunked briefly, no milk. Doesn’t look like it tastes of anything!
Thank I’m gonna go out and score some lapsang right now – haven’t had any for ages…
It’s my dh who is the tea addict in our house–I’m all coffee. Although I will drink tea if he brews it, on the weekend.
Oh, I’m a coffee addict as well, landismom – but I was a tea addict first.
I think it must be the Scottish ancestry – my Scottish grandmother and half Scottish mother are the same too. Nan drinks about 8 cups a day, but they’re all half cups.
I like the formative tea experience question. When I come to think about it, I probably have my grandma to blame for my tea addiction. She used to give me sugary tea in a bottle when I was a very small baby. Ooh, imagine people’s reactions if you gave a tiny baby a bottle of tea nowadays?! Never mind, it was the 70s. (And I can’t resist the opportunity to say: “and it never did me any harm!”)
My mum likes tea that is very weak, the teabag in the water for two seconds max, but she has only the tinest bit of milk. I can never make tea the way she likes it! I’m veering towards stronger tea the older I get.
Tea was always a comfort drink for me until I discovered green tea in a big way. It’s the little bit of labour intensiveness that appeals (as well as the taste) – the amount of pot wahsing, water cooling, leaf measuring and so on.