Tea

Loose leafed tea.
The real stuff always tastes so much better than teabags. I cringe when I see someone drinking Chinese tea from a teabag...it's so wrong!!! Yet, I never think twice about using English teabags!

I remember I never used to drink tea...yes, I'd drink Chinese tea at the restaurant but I would never have made it at home. As for English tea, it wasn't anything that was familiar to me at all.

It was when I started to volunteer at Barnardos when I was about 17, that I discovered the joys and importance of tea in this culture. In the morning, when we had prepared the days activities, the workers would all sit down to a cup of tea or coffee, in anticipation of the arrivial of the kids. They were all picked up by the minibus, so it would take quite a while sometimes. I quickly learnt everyone's person drink preference (sugar, milk, strong/weak, tea/coffee) so that I could help prepare the drinks. I think that it was at that point, that I decided that it would be nice to join in. And so I did. Now...I can't stop drinking tea. 

Around that time I was working in a cafe in old town called 'Studio 10.5' in the summer and then on Saturdays. It was back in the day when I got paid something less than £4 an hour. It's not there anymore. A bit of a random place; a small cafe and art shop downstairs and the main cafe upstairs. We sold hot meals, sandwiches, drinks, scones, salads. I remember watching them make things like  roast vegetable casseroles, poached salmon, and soup. It was the first time that I'd seen butternut squash! I remember washing the pots. If I had an early shift there would be piles of washing, from all of the cooking....even back then, I loved washing up! But, what I remember most about that place were the tubs of loose leafed tea; all different flavours and smells, each with a different exotic name and fancy label. Customers would come in and ask for different types of tea to drink, or they would have it weighted out and wrapped to take home. How I wish I'd taken advantage of that and tried all the mixes.