Honestly, if you’re given the choice between Armageddon or tea, you don’t say ‘what kind of tea?’ ― Neil Gaiman
I confess that I am not a huge tea fan. If pressed, I can manage a cup of hot tea as an excuse to inhale scones with great globs of clotted cream – but even then it’s something I do solely to get at the scones and cream.
Still it’s better than iced tea which I loathe with the heat of a thousand suns. My attitude toward tea was never a problem until I moved to England – Land of Tea, where 165 million cups of tea are consumed daily. As a coffee drinker, I am considered some sort of beverage blasphemer. This is me every year…
Coffee is available, yes and is increasingly popular but it’s still only cracking 70 million cups of coffee a day across the UK. So I am keeping my head (and coffee mug) down. Can I help it is I come from a place that – according to the Tea Association of America – only consumes 154 million cups of tea a day?
Of course, the British aren’t the only ones devoted to the stuff. Tea is second only to water as the most widely consumed beverage in the world. What is really staggering about tea however isn’t that so many people are drinking it but the fact there are so many different types of tea available for drinking. The United Kingdom Tea Council (who are in a position to know) estimate that there are 1500 varieties.
But man cannot live by tea alone (despite what some think) and so someone decided January should also be Soup Month.
Now THAT I can get behind, ladle at the ready. Soup is good food. What else needs to be said? Quite a bit actually. Soup Month, like Slow Cooking Month (also January), is definitely well placed here in mid-winter. Sure there are cold soups (gazpacho is delicious and refreshing and matzo ball soup is a highlight of Spring for me every year) but by and large, soup is a winter indulgence at TransAtlantic Towers. What about at your house?