Good coffee is something I don't mind paying for and I have learned that you get what you pay for. But tea is a different matter altogether and the truth is I actually prefer bad tea. I have tried many teas but to me the cheapest brand with the most tea bags is what pleases me. I just bought 72 bags of Signal tea bags at Sobey's for $1.99 - a little pricey but I am running low.
My mother was a great tea drinker - she drank it steeped and strong and all day long. The teapot was always on the stove and she just simply added more tea bags and water as needed. Mom knew how to get maximum mileage out of a tea bag and she kept it nice and warm under a tea cozy. I on the other hand, make my tea by boiling water in a pot on top of the stove - throw a teabag in a cup, add boiling water and then squeeze the bag against the side of the cup with a spoon. Toss the used tea bag in the sink, a little milk and sugar and I am away. I like my teabags square, not round - and packed in paper not flow-thru gauze. And like my father I prefer my tea "with it" - as in "Would you like a cup of tea? Sure - what have you got to go with it?
A wise man once said that coffee is food but tea is medicine and I couldn't agree more. If you are getting over a cold or flu do you recover by having a robust cup of coffee and a danish? Of course not - a civilized person nurses oneself back to health by taking a little dry toast and some weak tea.
Tea has been around for thousands of years and is more socially acceptable in polite company than that young upstart coffee. If the Queen came to visit (and when I was a child I always believed there was a distinct possibility that this might happen) what would you serve her? Why a cup of tea of course - served in your finest hand painted china, complete with matching saucer.
And maybe just a little something to go "with it"....
