I love the
French wine, I love the French cheese, but if there's one thing the British can
never be beaten on, it's their tea. Tea is magic. It picks you up when you need
a gentle nudge to get moving in the morning and brings you back down to earth
after a stressful day. How it manages to enhance whatever mood you are in need
of I do not know, but in short tea must be drunk on a daily basis. Just maybe
not in the way the French do it. Whilst they do attempt to imitate and
accommodate for the 'Oh so British' tea drinking habits, they just don't quite
get how it's really done.
For
starters, their milk is a disaster. A lot of French people think it's
incredibly odd that we put milk in our tea, some would even say it was
disgusting. However to a certain extent I do not blame them. The milk here really
isn't that great, and there is a definite difference in taste. Even if you do
buy the more expensive 'fresh' stuff it still tastes like UHT. When my tea
addict mother and friends visited me,
bringing along a stock of PG Tips or Tetley's they were shocked to find how
different a cup of tea tastes over here.
This all may sound a bit lacto-obsessive, but any one that has known
'holiday milk' whilst staying in an apartment abroad will understand these
qualms.
Head to a
café and it just gets worse. Tea does
appear on some café menus but not all, and it is usually served in a weird
manner. Order an Earl Grey and you will be presented with a cup of warm water,
often with the teabag still in its package on the saucer, and no milk in sight.
It seems that France attempts to offer tea in their own 'classy' continental
fashion, but in fact what you end up with is a weak, luke warm substitute, literally. If you order tea in a French restaurant, the waiter usually brings
over a very nice wooden box offering a
large range of teas and infusions for
your post-dinner beverage. Personally,
I'm not all that interested in choosing from a stock of 20 different teas, with flavours ranging
from liquorice to cinnamon I just want a normal cup of tea!!
Most towns
boast fancy little boutiques selling dozens of varieties of loose fragrant tea
leaves, beautiful tea sets and trays, but no standard tea bags. It's all very
nice to look at, but it really does not correspond with what I expect from a
cup of tea. No frills, no tea strainers, just a plain old builder's brew suits
me down to the ground...I'm not really that interested in all this 'Ceylan'
melarky.
Despite my
complaints about the serious lack of a decent cuppa, I do actually find this to be a positive
aspect of living away from home. In this multi-cultural world, where food,
drink, and language are forever crossing borders and infiltrating neighbouring
countries, Britain still boasts the best cuppa. France may attempt to infuse
tea drinking into their own culture, but the best and most classic tea party
will always be held on our side of
the channel. Rant over, kettle on.
