I was tempted to enter this challenge. Why? Because I am a converted tea drinker. Of course from the beginning I was surrounded by tea drinkers, being a Brit and growing up in an East London cockney family. The Rosie Lee was the drink of the day. Mum had her 10 cups a day, made with milk and sugar, and dad joined in. First of all the sugar and then the milk in the cup and pour the tea in afterwards from the pot. My Aunt brought it to 15 cups a day. We were colonial supporters in their tea production. I never really liked tea, and so I became a coffee drinker as I grew older.
In the meanwhile I had emigrated to Switzerland (no particular reason, just wanted to travel). I worked in Switzerland, and continued my coffee drinking. Even when I married Mr. Swiss after 2 years of Swiss life alone, I continued with my coffee. Mr. Swiss? He was a tea drinker. A pot of tea in the evening, no milk, some sugar and he drank it until the pot was empty, even when it became a cold drink.
And then came the day when I was having digestive problems. It seemed that my body was objecting to milk and so I changed to drinking tea, without milk of course, and also without sugar as I also had diabetes. I was drinking it pure. Every morning I have my cup of tea and this was where the teapot became redundant. Just a mug with a tea bag and hot water did it nicely for me. Of course we have a collection of tea pots. You never know if you have visitors preferring to drink their tea in style. I even have a little heating container for a candle to keep the pot hot, although I rarely use it.
Never ever order a tea in a restaurant in Switzerland. You get a glass of hot water and a tea bag at the side. They expect you to make your own tea at the table and it is not tea as I know it. I like my english breakfast tea with a punch and not a cheap mixup of tea that grows somewhere in an unknown corner of a field somewhere in Ceylon.
And this is the story of a Brit that converted into a tea drinker due to life’s circumstances., so give me my cup of char any time, but stirred, not shaken and left to brew for a few minutes. The tea pot is just an extra but not really necessary.