I'm slowly getting used to the fact that when I ask for tea in Florida, I'm not going to get one of these.
Nope, what you get is something completely different. For a start, it's cold. If you want hot tea, you need to specify hot tea. Then the chances are they'll bring you something made with green tea. You see, you should have said black tea if that's what you wanted. Then they helpfully go and put cream in it instead of milk. And then, if you wanted it sweetened, they pour honey in it. There's not much else they could do different. It is, in the words of the late, great, and much lamented Douglas Adams (who was, like me, an alumnus of St John's College, Cambridge) "almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea."
It's easier just to accept that this is tea, and the good old English cuppa is something to be enjoyed in the comfort of my own home.
3 comments:
And if you do ask for hot tea in the States, they don't realize they have to make it with boiling water - which I now see may be explained by the absence of proper kettles discussed in the previous post.
Matt, I tweeted this you - but as you are on wedding hiatus I figured I'd post it here as well. Congrats by the way.
For a proper English Cup 'O Tea in Florida go Publix and check out their Ethnic Food Section. That is where you can obtain a very limited subset of English stuff. PG Tips and Tetley I think are available. Ignore the English Teas and Breakfast brands in the tea and coffee section as these are in very silly and measly sized portions and you would need at least 2 tea bags to get anything approaching an English tea bag.
RE: Kettles - we have a "polly put the kettle on" style thing that works - shame it doesn't have an auto cut off though. Americans rely on various coffee machine contraptions ranging from drip machines through to exorbitant espresso machines.
I can make a cuppa at home - I found the ethnic section in Publix last time! http://www.flickr.com/photos/87509590@N00/3623637280/
If I get really desperate, there's a British Shoppe on Colonial that sells overpriced Whittards teas. It's just remembering to order the right thing when I'm out.
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