Tea for One, Tea for Many

Tea for One, Tea for Many


Let me ask that you, the reader, to take a moment to think about your favorite hot drink. All around the world there is a variety of choices, the most common of which are, tea, coffee and cocoa. In a big city all three are easily available as you run about your daily business. For me, I’ve found that I like to always have a way to have my favorite hot beverage. That is, tea at any time; preferably, green tea, but if I must have something else, I will first go for an herbal tea and then for black tea. White teas are entirely off my list, as is coffee,  for two different reasons. And then, there’re chai teas.

I know what kind of tea I like best out of all others though. Jasmine tea is almost always good even though there are a few jasmine teas which don’t taste at all like jasmine and instead taste like bubblegum (a very interesting, if undesirable, flavor) or simply like regular green tea. Out of the various bagged jasmine teas I have tried, so far, my favorites are Bigelow’s Jasmine and Whittard Jasmine. The Bigelow’s is an American brand which I get when I am at home. The Whittard’s is a brand I found here in the U.K. Between the two, I would be hard pressed to say which I like more. They both have distinctive flavors which I have no way of properly articulating the differences of without a direct comparison. The best I can do is to say that the Bigelow’s has more of a rounded full flavor, while the Whittard’s has a more mellow flavor. Both of them share a more delicate flower flavor.

Black teas generally taste the same to me. If I had to make a comparison to a plant with this kind of tea it would be to trees. This is because black teas are much more robust, more powerfully flavored than green teas. There is one cup of black tea which I have had which broke the rule of generally tasting the same. I will never drink it again as it tasted like dirt. This was an accidental black tea, which someone made for me, (it was supposed to be regular green as far as I recall) and so, I drank it. If I were at home, I wouldn’t touch black tea if it could be helped. While it is generally drinkable, it is not exactly good. While I’ve been in England, I’ve taken up drinking a single cup of Typhoo black tea in the morning, no milk or sugar. This is the same as I would do if I were home and drinking black tea. However, at my internship, there are two breaks for tea. The tea is Yorkshire black tea, which most of the other people there drink with milk in it. At first, this confused me slightly though I did not question it as I have an aunt who drinks her tea with milk.

After a few weeks, I tried milk in tea while on a trip out to the moors. It was a much gentler flavor at that point. Since then I have tried milk in my tea a few other times. Apparently, there is a learning curve for the ratio of tea to milk. I’ve gotten it wrong, mostly with too much milk, but I drink the tea anyway unless it’s truly nasty. Chai is not my cup of tea. Never, ever give me chai tea. I have tried chai tea exactly once, but based on the scent of other chai teas, scent being a large part of taste, I will not like any other chai tea any more than I liked the first one.

Herbal teas, though, are absolutely awesome. There are so many different types. You have echinacea, peppermint, chamomile, and all sorts of others. These teas can actually be recommended by doctors (it’s very rare but if you ask, a doctor will tell you it’s “most likely just a placebo effect”). Anyway, while in London, I got an absolutely amazing cup of peppermint tea. It was loose-leaf from a stop-and-go type of place. Peppermint tea on a cold day where you decide to go walking about is perfect to warm back up with. Plus, whether or not it really works, it does seem to help with congestion. Chamomile for me, is the perfect tea before bed. It may have a slightly odd taste but it’s a lot better than black tea.

So, as I’ve been wandering around all of York, I’ve noticed a lot of cafes or restaurants or even straight up tea shops. It does seem fitting since England is a country known for its love of tea. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to do more than go to the shops to buy jasmine tea for my dorm room. Hopefully, with only a few weeks left, I will have enough time to get to one of the cafes. Even better would be to take with me someone who likes tea as much as I do. For now, I will simply think of how I perceive such an experience might go.