Page 62 - @ccess 2 Reader´s Book
P. 62

•  Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and
                   not the other way about. The water should be actually
                   boiling at the moment of impact, which means that
                   one should keep it on the flame while one pours.
                   Some people add that one should only use water that
                   has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never
                   noticed that it makes any difference.
                •  Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir it, or
                   better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing
                   the leaves to settle.
                •  Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup
                   — that is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow
                   type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other
                   kind one's tea is always half cold before one has well
                   started on it.
                •  Ninthly, one should pour the cream off the milk before
                   using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea
                   a sickly taste.
                •  Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is
                   one of the most controversial points of all; indeed, in
                   every family in Britain there are probably two schools of
                   thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring
                   forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain
                   that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by
                   putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one
                   can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one
                   is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other
                   way round.
                •  Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style
                   — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I
                   am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself
                   a true tea lover if you destroy the flavour of your tea
                   by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable
                   to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just
                   as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are
                   no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the
                   sugar; you could make a very similar drink by      bitter
                                                                       (adj.):
                   dissolving sugar in plain hot water.                amargo

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