[HPFGU-OTChatter] Tea, Jam, and Ice

[Horst or Rebecca J. Bohner]

> only from the top part of the plant (which I can't for the life of me
> think of the name of) but tea's like Lipton grind up everything
> including the bark!

I can believe it.  When my husband and I went to a conference in Florida
shortly after we were married, everybody was drinking coffee.  I can't stand
coffee, so I immediately gravitated toward the pot of hot water and the bags
of Lipton tea.  "Aha," thought I to myself, "I have never had a good cup of
tea at an American restaurant before, but since I'm making this cup myself,
it's sure to be all right."

Let me assure you that it was NOT all right.  Doctor it ever so nicely,
there was no redeeming that bag of sawdust.  I poured it down the sink, went
back to my husband and said, "No wonder the Americans drink coffee, if
*that's* all they've got for tea."

I'm not even that picky, either.  I mean, I enjoy a cup of nicely brewed
loose leaf when I can get it, but at home I buy Tetley's Decaffeinated Earl
Grey in little round bags and it suits me just fine.  Whoever buys the tea
for Lipton's in the US, though, should be taken out and shot.

> As much I like fine teas I also appreciate good ol' southern iced
> tea...wich is full of ice and extremely sweet.

Much as I adore hot tea, sweet is the only way that iced tea is drinkable,
IMO.  Another nasty shock for me in American restaurants north of the
Mason-Dixon line is that "iced tea" equals a cup of cold tannic acid with no
sweetening whatsoever.  And adding sugar after the fact most assuredly does
not help!  Give me a Snapple any day.

> they don't have ice in any country I've traveled to, other than in
> the US of course.

There's almost always ice in drinks here in Canada.  In fact you usually
have to tell them NOT to put it in, if you're that way inclined.  I don't
care either way so long as the drink is cold, but I admit there's something
gratifying about tipping up the glass and crunching the ice when there's
nothing else left.

> This reminded me of jam from Britain (don't ask how), and especially
> Lemon Curd which I found recently. Yum!

Me, I envy the English their Devonshire clotted cream.  There is a tea room
about ten minutes from my hometown that serves scones with jam and clotted
cream, but it's dreadfully expensive since the cream is imported.  Still,
every now and then I have to splurge.
--
Rebecca J. Bohner
rebeccaj at pobox.com
http://home.golden.net/~rebeccaj