Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Studying the Tea Leaves of My Past

Lew Rockwell has a link to this article on the anniversary of the tea bag. I confess that I have always taken the tea bag for granted. I never considered when its use became widespread or why.

My Hall's teapot has an infuser, but I just stuff a bag inside it. I guess my tea habits are a trifle on the unsophisticated side.

I haven't been a morning tea drinker since I was a teen. At that time I converted my bedroom into a sitting room, complete with a wicker "tea" table from my grandma's house. I purchased a blue and white Japanese tea set from an import shop and eventually collected the matching openstock dinnerware. Every morning before school I would have my mother join me for green tea. It seemed perfectly normal to me then. Now I realize the truth. I was a strange child. Mom never let on, though. What a good sport! And she had probably had three cups of coffee before she "took tea" with me. She kept an electric percolator on her vanity, beside the makeup mirror. I guess she had to fortify herself before she could step out of her bedroom each morning. Being the mother of teenaged girls during the '70s demanded regular fortification.

Nowadays I usually sip coffee from a plain old white Corelle mug. All of my style comes from what I add to it. I don't go for any of the exotic additives that you'll find at Starbucks. My two favorites are Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk and Steen's cane syrup. One or the other, mind you. If I'm doing Steen's, I add half 'n half. My hair may be limp, but my coffee has body!

No comments: