107 lines
5.7 KiB
Plaintext
107 lines
5.7 KiB
Plaintext
A Nice Cup of Tea
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by George Orwell
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If you look up 'tea' in the first cookery book that comes to hand
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you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will
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find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on
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several of the most important points.
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This is curious, not only because tea is one of the mainstays of
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civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and
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New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject
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of violent disputes.
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When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find
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no fewer than eleven outstanding points. On perhaps two of them
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there would be pretty general agreement, but at least four others
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are acutely controversial. Here are my own eleven rules, every one
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of which I regard as golden:
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First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea
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has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays - it is
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economical, and one can drink it without milk - but there is not
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much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more
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optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting
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phrase 'a nice cup of tea' invariably means Indian tea. Secondly,
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tea should be made in small quantities - that is, in a teapot.
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Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a
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cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be
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made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britanniaware teapots
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produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously
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enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad. Thirdly,
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the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing
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it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot
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water. Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a
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quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped
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teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is
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not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I
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maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones.
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All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a
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little stronger with each year that passes - a fact which is
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recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners.
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Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers,
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muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries
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teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to
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catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually
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one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill
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effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses
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properly. Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and
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not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling
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at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on
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the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only
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use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have
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never noticed that it makes any difference. Seventhly, after
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making the tea, one should stir it, or better, give the pot a
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good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves to settle. Eighthly,
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one should drink out of a good breakfast cup - that is, the
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cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast
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cup holds more, and with the other kind one's tea is always half
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cold before one has well started on it. Ninthly, one should pour
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the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too
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creamy always gives tea a sickly taste. Tenthly, one should pour
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tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial
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points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably
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two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can
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bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that
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my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea
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in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the
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amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if
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one does it the other way round.
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Lastly, tea - unless one is drinking it in the Russian style -
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should be drunk _without sugar_. I know very well that I am
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in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true
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tealover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar
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in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt.
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Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If
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you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely
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tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving
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sugar in plain hot water.
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Some people would answer that they don't like tea in itself, that
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they only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they
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need sugar to take the taste away. To those misguided people I
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would say: Try drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight
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and it is very unlikely that you will ever want to ruin your tea
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by sweetening it again.
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These are not the only controversial points to arise in connexion
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with tea drinking, but they are sufficient to show how subtilized
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the whole business has become. There is also the mysterious social
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etiquette surrounding the teapot (why is it considered vulgar to
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drink out of your saucer, for instance?) and much might be written
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about the subsidiary uses of tealeaves, such as telling fortunes,
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predicting the arrival of visitors, feeding rabbits, healing burns
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and sweeping the carpet. It is worth paying attention to such
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details as warming the pot and using water that is really boiling,
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so as to make quite sure of wringing out of one's ration the twenty
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good, strong cups of that two ounces, properly handled, ought to
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represent.
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Evening Standard, 12 January 1946.
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(taken from 'The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George
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Orwell, Volume 3, 1943-45, Penguin ISBN, 0-14-00-3153-7)
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