I think of the author, Arthur Hailey,
when I brew tea. He wrote about the importance of using boiling water to make the
beverage. It’s the only thing I can remember about his novel, Airport, but it’s
sound advice I’ve followed since reading the book at thirteen.
Another
tea-obsessed author is the late Douglas Adams. He may have been able to predict
the i-pad, when he created The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy over thirty
years before the launch of Apple’s miraculous tablet, but I have to take issue
with his advice on brewing the perfect cuppa.
It all starts so well as he explains
that Americans don't appreciate the beverage because they don't know how to
make it properly: (Arthur Hailey
devotees are presumed to be exceptions.) He is right when he states, ‘the water
should be biolING (not boilED) when it hits the tea leaves(Adams 2002:67).’ Then comes the inevitable
disappointment as the author instructs us to use Earl Grey tea and to put the
milk in the cup first.
Milk with Earl Grey tea is bad
enough but to put the milk in first is unforgivable. If you have to drink Earl
Grey, then don't add anything to it at all. No sugar, no milk not even lemon.
It has enough flavour of its own.
To make the perfect cup of first buy
a packet of builder-grade PG Tips, Yorkshire Tea or Liptons Everyday. Never use the kind of tea you find in
European and American cafes such as Liptons Yellow label.
Warm a standard sized pot and put in
two tea bags.
Pour boiling water over the tea bags
until the pot is almost full.
Wait four minutes and then stir the
pot.
Pour into a mug if you are on your
own, or two bone china teacups if you are entertaining.
Add the milk: not too much.
Now is the time to add sugar: if you
really must.
Stir, sit back and enjoy with a chocolate
biscuit; no dunking allowed.
Most would argue that it really does
not matter when the milk and tea are united, but there is a difference in
taste. Adams’ case for putting in the milk first is scientific. He believes
that the milk will scald if added to hot liquid. Tea certainly has a sharper
taste when the milk is put in last and, if that is because the milk is scalded,
that’s how I enjoy the infusion.
Reference
Adams, Douglas. The Salmon
of Doubt. London: Macmillan
2 comments:
I'm a milk-in-last convert and don't mind lemon with Earl Grey. Use leaf tea except when alone, when my fave is Duchy Originals tea bags. Good flavour and bag fabric unbleached. (Just think of all that nasty stuff in white teabags.) C.
Apparently the Mitford sisters used to call lower class people MIFs or Milk In Firsts. As a person from just such stock I take delight in being a MIF but consider the idea of a ruling on what is right or wrong about making tea merely a matter of taste (apart from the boiling water which is just good sense). As to Earl Grey, it is just dishwater to me but, 'degustibus non est disputandum', as they say.
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