A 365 blog would be incomplete without a tribute to my one expensive vice: British tea. I spend the big bucks ($18.99 for 240 bags) and go through a box every 60-70 days.
Come visit me! I'll make you tea and scones. Or at least tea.
Dirk gets the British Teas that are made by the East India Tea Company. The kids are always fasinated that the company is still in business. I don't even want to go into what his tea habit costs.
We read, with great sadness today, that our favourite tea company, Murchie's, may be going under because of an "aging clientele" and competition from places like Starbuck's. Starbuck's! You must be joking.
For over 30 years, visiting Murchie's at least a couple of times per year (always once before CHristmas) has been a familiar ritual - the loose tea measured out in large silver scoops and poured and weighed into 1/2 pound or 1 lb wax-lined paper bags by English or Indian "ladies" wearing white gloves, the fragrance of jasmine and bergamot, the almost meditative quiet of the stores with their prepackaged tins of tea and English china. A trip to Victoria was never complete without a proper high tea, either at Murchie's with it's bowls of milky coffee or china mugs of whatever of 50 or so types of tea struck your fancy (my personal favourites were Russian Caravan and Select Darjeeling) or at one of those English teashops with a tiered place of crustless sandwiches and scones with thick cream and preserves. Alas, a dying ritual, now chiefly aimed at tourists.
When we went to the US and my husband ordered tea (I ordered coffee - when in Rome..) he would have to specify "hot" tea and sometimes explain how to make it. He was never happy with the result.
4 comments:
Dirk gets the British Teas that are made by the East India Tea Company. The kids are always fasinated that the company is still in business. I don't even want to go into what his tea habit costs.
I wish I could pop in! Enjoy your tea. You deserve it!
Susa
We read, with great sadness today, that our favourite tea company, Murchie's, may be going under because of an "aging clientele" and competition from places like Starbuck's. Starbuck's! You must be joking.
For over 30 years, visiting Murchie's at least a couple of times per year (always once before CHristmas) has been a familiar ritual - the loose tea measured out in large silver scoops and poured and weighed into 1/2 pound or 1 lb wax-lined paper bags by English or Indian "ladies" wearing white gloves, the fragrance of jasmine and bergamot, the almost meditative quiet of the stores with their prepackaged tins of tea and English china. A trip to Victoria was never complete without a proper high tea, either at Murchie's with it's bowls of milky coffee or china mugs of whatever of 50 or so types of tea struck your fancy (my personal favourites were Russian Caravan and Select Darjeeling) or at one of those English teashops with a tiered place of crustless sandwiches and scones with thick cream and preserves. Alas, a dying ritual, now chiefly aimed at tourists.
When we went to the US and my husband ordered tea (I ordered coffee - when in Rome..) he would have to specify "hot" tea and sometimes explain how to make it. He was never happy with the result.
I'll be right on over!
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