The Sugar Bowl Debacle

Yesterday I wasn't feeling very well, so I had a little stroll in the early evening to cheer myself up. I wandered into Zara Home looking for picture frames. Somehow, against all the odds I fund myself buying this sugar bowl. 50% glass, 50% brass.

It's lovely isn't it? So delicate. So stylish, so absolutely me (?) The lovely lady at the counter wrapped it thoroughly in bubble wrap to keep it safe. I was so pleased.

When I got back to Tilly Towers I was very keen to get some sugar in it. Call me sad if you like, I can't hear you. 

Then - disaster!

Bubble wrap is plastic and plastic is slippery. My slightly slow, tired and vacant fingers didn't grasp properly and the bowl, still bubble-wrapped, landed on the edge of my granite table mat.

Yes. Yes, it smashed.

The silver lining? There was no mess. It was all perfectly contained in the bubble wrap. This didn't hearten me. I still had the 50% brass portion though, the lid and the spoon. And really that is the best bit. That's really the only important bit isn't it? The glass bowl could be anything couldn't it? Couldn't it?

Yes it could! Let's be positive here.

So today I rummaged a bit in my cupboards until I found some potential replacements.

Drum roll please:

Don't be alarmed, I don't live in the 20's, the sepia just makes everything look a little nicer.

You can see that there's a bit of variety in there. I've got some wine glasses, a champagne flute, a glass tumbler and some espresso cups. Obviously none of this has anything to do with tea. They're useless. By rights they shouldn't even be IN my cupboards. Honestly, cluttering the place up and not doing anything tea-y at all! It's about time they started pulling their weight and contributed to this tea thing. As if I drink wine! I don't know how they got there...

So I do have options after all, I think I may be able to breathe a big sigh of relief and use my sugar bowl after all :)

Birt & Tang White Tea and Blackcurrant

Today the riots seem far less pressing, and tea is again something that I can get enthused about. With a newfound fervour for calm, I was in no state to achieve it. Instead, it fell to my long suffering Gentleman Friend to provide tea just when it was needed, and before I realised it. I would heartily recommend any one of you investing in such a companion. It really makes a huge difference.

So I consumed vast quantities of very milky honest-to-goodness-basic-blend-teabag-tea. While it certainly did the trick and I felt entirely human after, I felt a little full.

So as every problem can be solved with tea I wondered which blend I should enlist. Interesting.

I looked at green, I looked at Oolong, I looked at everything. In the end I resorted to a half formed memory about white tea being especially good for you. Faultless logic I'm sure you'll agree. So, off to the tea cupboard to rifle through. I set my mind on Birt & Tang's White Tea + Blackcurrant. No particular reason, it seemed like it was the kind of thing that might help.

So, with high hopes for calm and humanity I boiled up the kettle and had a butchers at the packet. The kind advice was 'Use freshly boiled water, and leave to steep for around five minutes.' I like that, I like the 'around five minutes' bit. I really don't want to feel like I have to time my steeping to a pack instructions. Already I'm a bit of a fan of these dudes.

So I put the 'freshly boiled' water in my cute little cup (which I painted myself dontcha know) and leave it to get acquainted with the tea for a few minutes.

Time passes. I write a little bit more of this blog. Some cars outside have their music on too loud. I have an unexpected sneeze. Then before I know it around five minutes have passed.

Back to the kitchen to check on my beautiful beverage.

Well it has darkened up a treat, we'll leave it a respectable amount of time so that my tongue doesn't melt. This is always a risk with milkless tea and sensitive tongues. My mother could probably drink the water straight from the kettle, she surely is a sight to behold. But I digress.

Time passes, etc.

So, I drink it now, right? Ok then, here I go.

It has a very delicate flavour, it's very lightly scented and generally a very light tea. If you take a ready deep breath you can almost smell blackcurrant, but I might be imagining that. It's really very faint. As it cools slightly the flavour grows gradually, and it becomes a much more flavoursome cup. It's very easy drinking too, so I hope that all the white tea claims are true because I really don't mind drinking some of this when I feel a bit unhealthy. It's also very quenching, which I often don't find is as true of some of the bagged green tea.

So, verdict out – I like it. I still want some funky loose tea in a pot, of course. But that's not always practical for me. So this is a good delicate tea that might even make you younger! Or invisible or give you x-ray vision or whatever they're claiming today.

Tea and Riots

Let me start this by saying that I don't live in central london and I don't live in a deprived part of the suburbs either. I have no real first hand experience of proper deprivation. However, I did grow up in a relatively run down working class part of suburbia. Lots of my friends at school had free school dinners and even more lived on the council estate. As I say, I didn't have those experiences so I can't claim to know what it's like. Not really.

But I'm no David Cameron; there was no expensive education and no housekeeper in my childhood. I don't know anyone (unless they're hiding it) who has an inherited title or estate. I'm a lot closer to those rioters than I am to the elite.

So actually, maybe I do know. Maybe I know just the kind of kids who would think rioting and looting would be a good idea. The same kids that throw bricks off overpasses and bottles at trains. They're not making a point, they're not that bright. They're angry and they're frustrated and they feel powerless. In fact, they ARE the point. It's kids like this that are created by deprivation, by spending cuts, by having parents so depressed and sick of the world that they are incapable of stopping them.

So I don't defend them, but I think they're a symptom of a failure of government.

And that is far more depressing.

So tea then. Not much help is it? Well, maybe you'd be surprised. Tea may well not tempt a rioter out of Curry's and back home to the kettle, but it might not be entirely powerless.

The papers are always telling us that families who eat together are more successful, and I think the key to that is communication. A cuppa and a natter is a great British institution that maybe we're neglecting a bit now that we drink our tea and (shudder) coffee on the go.

So here's my idea. Put the kettle on, sit down with someone and just pass the time of day. Why not check on that elderly neighbour who's always so keen to talk? Nothing fancy, nothing expensive, and it's no real trouble.You might be surprised how nice it is to talk to someone new and get a different perspective, and you might make a new friend. You could even mix it up with a biscuit or two. Be a little dangerous, but leave it at that, that's dangerous enough.

Cream Tea in Rochester, Medway

Cream Tea in Rochester, Medway, a photo by tillytakestea on Flickr.

I had a lovely trip to Rochester, Medway, UK. There was a great deal of tea to be had, but Medway is not known for its cream teas, so there was decidedly less fuss than in Devon.