Thursday, April 10, 2008

a cup of tea solves everything


well not really, but it is the name of a Facebook group - there are 216 cup of tea groups by the way!


I do like my cuppa. When I had to wear a heat sensitive dot at Theo College to measure stress, I would start looking relaxed as soon as I put the kettle on. I like tea rather than coffee - well I like the taste of coffee, but since it makes me act, in the words of one friend, as if I am on speed, I generally avoid it. I have grown to appreciate tea very much - and for those who know the differences between tea people, I like Earl Grey, Russian Caravan and Lapsang Souchoung - and the occasional Chai.


I have just made an important discovery about myself. I have for a while had a general dissatisfaction with the mugs I owned, but since many of these mugs not only do the job well, but look Ok as well, I found it hard to pinpoint why. No longer. I bought myself some cheap teacups and saucers (see piccie for pattern - willow by churchill) from the supermarket on sale (about 2.60 a set!) and have realised that the reason for dissatisfaction is that I am not a mug person. I am actually, as it turns out a teacup and saucer person, and I just needed to reach my mid 30s to admit this to myself. Ah the joy of this admission! The mug and the tea cup are for different purposes. The mug is very efficient. It fits more tea in. It can be carried around more easily. You can use the mug as you go round the house doing chores. Now here is the downfall of the mug. The mug is the cup of the workplace. It is the cup of swallows between doing other things. But the teacup! The teacup is for time out. It has the luxury and relaxation of a nineteenth century afternoon tea of a lady of leisure. For those few minutes with my teacup, the clamour of the day recedes. As an added bonus, the saucer means you don't have to deal with the whole coaster sticking to the bottom of the thing.


So - are you a teacup or mug user? What type of hot drink? Or are you perhaps one of those who (I can hardly believe it is true, but I know it is) who do not partake of hot drinks at all?

4 comments:

Prue said...

I, gasp, am one of those who does not partake of hot drinks. I do not like a drink to make me hot. If a drink makes me hot I have to have a cold drink straight afterwards to cool me down. I cannot explain why, it is just one of those things. If I am desperate for warmth I will have a hot chocolate, but this is rare, though less rare in a snowy winter in Germany.

Cecily said...

Tea in a cup. Bliss.
Mugs. Ick.
Have you tried White Tea? It's wonderful!

mimbles said...

I'm a mug user, but I'm fussy about my mugs. I have utilitarian tough mugs for just the kind of use you ascribe to them but for sitting down with a pot and relaxing I like my special stoneware. In fact I like them so much I did a cuppa tea post myself a little while back :)

Megan said...

prue - I can drink cold drinks in even the coldest of environments - i think it must be an aussie thing, because when I was in the UK over one winter, my cousin and I were teased about needing cold drinks all the time.
cec - i will definitely try some white tea! what kind of tea do you drink normally?
mim - actually we still have some lovely pottery mugs you gave us when we got engaged (unlike other mugs which I have got rid of) - I really like them, and I couldnt understand why they were never quite what I wanted - since they are very pleasing aesthetically! I use them when I am in a mug mood!