Is someone taking the mickey?

[Rufio]

Just found this "recipe" on the net...

Tony Benn's "Cup that Cheers"

Method

1. Take one pint of pure water and boil it in a kettle with North Sea gas.

2. Add one tea bag from the Commonwealth, some non-dairy creamer, sugar from the Third World and stir until the tea assumes a satisfying deep brown colour.
3. Then remove the tea bag and take every hour, or more often if necessary.

This can't be serious...is it?

[Backdrifter]

Why can't it be serious? Sounds perfectly normal.

Perhaps it's trying to make the point that a simple cup of tea involves all sorts of resources from around the world.

That aside, for a one-cup brew using a teabag, my recipe would be:

1. Boil a kettle of filtered water.

2. Put about an inch of the hot water in your cup, swirl it around and leave for a few moments, while you open a packet of Brooke Bond Choicest Blend tea bags and sniff it, savouring the heavenly aroma. (Yorkshire Gold or Twinings Assam Orange Pekoe are good substitutes).

3. Pour the water from the cup, add the teabag, reboil the kettle and immediately pour the hot water over the bag, AS SOON as the kettle's switched off.

4. Add a splash of semi-skimmed milk, then leave for at least 2 minutes.

5. Use a teaspoon to squeeze the bag against the inside of the cup, then remove it.

6. Add sugar as required, stir, settle down on the couch with your tea and a plate of Fox's Vienna Sandwich biscuits, and enjoy your treat.

[jamesy boy]

Tony Benn is a well-known tea lover and T-Totaller (as am I) and so this might explain it.

[Backdrifter]

Anyone else have a tea ritual?

[Kim A]

Yep - Take one lovely japanese teapot, brought by my lovely husband at a ridiculous price in Bruges for my birthday last year. Fill kettle with freshly filtered water, switch on. Put two level proper tea shovels of loose tea (Pai Mu Tan or any other white or green tea are my favourites) into special filter basket. When kettle boils, pour water into teapot, then lower tea filter into it - I was instructed to do this by the man in the Tea Merchant's. If you pour boiling water onto the leaves, you run the risk of scalding the leaves and destroying the essential oils. Put the lid on the teapot and set the timer for between 2 and 4 minutes, depending on the type of tea being made. Remove the filter at the end of the specified time, drink from a pinky-brown Japanese crackle glazed tea bowl with a burgundy saucer underneath, and make like a Geisha for half an hour. As a tea drinker, I'd never drink tea bag tea - too much dust and poor quality leaves. Well, you did ask...............

[Backdrifter]

I agree leaves are better and give a richer flavour.