He’s hoping we’ve forgotten that they stole it from the Chinese, then obliged the Indians to grow it when they wanted more. What we’re doing wrong is listening to an Englishman about tea.
It’s not the making of tea in a domestic situation he’s talking about, I’m sure. Anyone can buy a kettle to boil their water, put a teabag in and swill it around, and then add milk. When I lived in the US, it was impossible to get a decent cup of tea when we went out for a hot drink. It was always Liptons, which is weak as gnat’s piss. The water always tasted like it had been heated in the microwave. It was always little pots of fake milk. You need piping hot water, decent teabags and proper milk. Sorry, he’s right!
And iced tea? What the fry is THAT all about? 😉
Oh, god, if he was fool enough to order coffee or tea in crap places like that, he deserves what he gets. I don’t order either beverage except in places where I know it’s made properly. That’s like going to McD’s and concluding that hamburgers are crap. There are places in America that serve actual tea. They are not the places that have service via drive through window.
And iced tea is best thought of as a distinct beverage from hot tea. That said, I don’t trust white people’s iced tea. It is betrayal in a glass.
Maybe in remote places because in more urban areas the U.S. has ‘steeped’ up it’s tea game. At a run of the mill lounge in LAX there was a large selection of Numi tea (including Earl Grey, Chai, Rooibos to name a few) to choose from. They also had real milk or half/half, regular or demerara sugar and lemon available. The bank that I go to regularly offers Twinning’s as a courtesy. I generally prefer Jasmine tea and loose leaf Assam that I buy at my local Asian market though. I am also fond of medicinal tisanes, it is an important part of my culture.
With regards to the British tea trade it was worse than that. They still got the majority of their tea from China. They bought it using the opium they forced Indian people to grow. They helped turn 35+ million Chinese people into addicts to keep that tea etc. flowing. Yeah, fancy a cuppa colonialism? I always like to bring that up between the fairy cakes and cucumber sandwiches, LOL.