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Tea

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In my teenage years I loved to drink a cappuccino at this little French restaurant called "le Coq". The coffee was bitter and taste awful and yet I loved the whole atmosphere that surrounded this brew.

I felt very European and sophisticated in this restaurant in a small city of the bottom of Africa. It was the days before the world realized how tasty a well made coffee can be. Starbuck was still a character in a book called "Moby Dick".

In my mother's house we all grew up to be coffee drinkers. She never touched tea and even today she is only a coffee drinker. I was first introduced to tea at boarding school during my high school years.

Most of the girls had kettles to make instant coffee to dip their homemade rusks in. In the evenings though tea was offered with sandwiches as a night time snack.

The tea was very milky and sweet and was a comfort to drink. All the girls were addicted to this night time brew and waited impatiently to be served.

After university I worked in a 'tea room' to pay of may student loans. One of the specialties of the house was a cream tea. That is tea served with scones with cream and strawberry jam.

The tea was specially mixed for the restaurant by a tea blending company. I did not even know that such people existed. It was served in a silver teapot with a white tea cup and saucer. It was all very ceremonial and proper and delicious.

One day one of the customers introduced himself as a tea grower who lived and worked for a long time in Ceylon. Needless to say that he was not to impressed by our specially blended tea.

He told me that proper tea was made with freshly boiled water. Making tea with hot water from an urn is a serious no-no.

Tea makers and drinkers can have just as many pretenses as coffee drinkers. As a matter of fact the latte drinkers are only now catching on to the ceremony of drinking a hot drink.

A true tea drinker will never drink tea from a paper cup. And walking in the street sipping from a extra large container simply is not done.

It is nice to sit in a coffee shop every once in a while and have a latte. But it is something that I do not do everyday. Too much coffee makes you jittery and the more you drink, the more addictive it becomes.

Tea is nice to have early in the mornings sitting in the garden and contemplating your day. It is fine to drink during the day when you need five minutes to sit a bit and it is the perfect nightcap. You also do not have to worry about tea keeping you up at night.

So let the coffee drinkers think that they are smart with their Columbian blend in a short skinny with wings. Tea is just so much superior and it does not need fancy names to know it.

Do yourself a favor, invest in a good teapot, a good brand of teabags and a nice mug. This is all you need for some mediative me time. Or let's call it tea time.

Learn more about this author, Marina Shemesh.
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