In praise of tea...

You paint a lovely picture of the comfort and pleasure tea gives you.

As a young child I was forced to drink tea in hospital and hated it.

The only time I have touched it since is when someone mistakenly gave me tea instead of coffee when I was on yard duty. Sorry, but yuk !

A cup of coffee now.......mmmmm

Tea is the devil's brew as far as I'm concerned. How anyone can pass the disgusting stuff past their lips is beyond me. I used to drink black coffee but went off it on chemo and still can't get onto it after 6 years.

GagaJo

Why did you go off tea, do you know, GSM?

I did the opposite - now drink mors tea than coffee. Mine happened after I had weight loss surgery more than 20 years ago and found that coffee was hurting me when I drank it

I start the day with a strong cup of Ringtons tea (best by far) with just a dash of milk. I can’t stand instant coffee but make myself a large Americano in my Tassimo machine mid morning. I drink tea in the afternoon but I avoid both tea & coffee after 5 if I can as I find it keeps me awake. I’ve tried various fruit teas and also a bedtime brew to aid sleep but don’t really enjoy them. It’s proper tea for me, I love a good loose tea brewed in a pot but it’s a bit of a faff for one.

I drink a lot of tea, milk no sugar.

if you ask a person if they drink tea and they say yes but it turns out they drink green tea or fruit teas well, they are not tea in my opinion and shouldn't be called tea....... only my opinion, I don't want a fight!

We have a cup of green tea with lemon every day for the past 40 years and it really starts the day well, freshe ns me up and clears my sinuses. After that it's coffee all morning but yes all afternoon. I'm time of crisis it's tea. Just regular tea but a good brand Twinings usually served week with little semi skimmed cows milk no sugar. I do love a biscuit with it though just a Rich Tea will do.

Me too. A friend once described my cuppa as “not so much weak as helpless”! 🤣. With a tiny drip of milk, heaven. I Drink pints daily. Good brown tea…
I can’t stand all those green/white/redbush teas; the smell doesn’t translate into flavour and green tea tastes of grass cuttings to me.

Ooh, I’m pleased to have been joined by other weak-tea drinkers!

I drink tea first thing in the morning and then mid afternoon. I drink it quite weak and with milk. I’m a dental hygienist and tea , black or strong with milk really stains teeth . Much more than coffee . Check out the cups or mugs . Even green tea stains . Some tea drinkers teeth look like smokers teeth !

I wish I could like a cup of tea as it is such an English tradition and my parents drank it all the time as do lots of my friends but try as I might I can't stand the smell or the dry tannin taste .
Any tips would be appreciated as I can no longer taste coffee ( covid) so either drink hot or cold Vimto or peppermint teas non of which I enjoy.

Builder’s Tea, or Earl Grey, or Assam. I also find a cuppa will send me back to sleep if I’m awake in the early morning.
Rooibos is OK and I drink that with my decaffeinated tea friends. Haven’t drunk instant coffee since pregnancy.

Another weak tea drinker here. Earl Grey (with an occasional Lapsang Souchong) , no milk or sugar. I can't bear the taste of tannin, it makes my mouth go dry. I must drink at least 6 mugsful a day, DH is a great one for making a hot drink at regular intervals.

Can't bear coffee. I tried hard to get to like it as a teenager but in the end I thought it wasn't worth the pain...

A cup of tea is definitely a comforter for me. I love the cuppa and biscuits you get after a blood donation.

All 4 of your sentences apply to me too henetha
Like AreWeThereYet I find getting up and making a cup of tea can send me off to sleep again.

Rington's tea. Best ever. Can't drink any other type.

On average I drink 5 mugs of Earl Grey every day. With a dribble of milk, occasionally just with lemon. I crave tea.
My tea of dreams is white oolong, regrettably just too expensive to be more than a rare treat. Until you’ve drunk a special tea, you cannot know just how good it is.

SueDonim- we could share a teabag: I did this with a fellow weak tea drinker when I was working 😊

I need my coffee first thing in the morning. At least two thick, strong, chewy black ones to kick start my day. But coffee is a short drink to me. Tea comes into its own for the rest of the day especially when I'm working, until wine o'clock comes round.

I haven't had milk in tea for many years now. Milk in tea tastes greasy to me now. And call me precious if you must but I never use teabags, It's loose tea and a proper pot for me. The pot in question is perfect for one and does quite nicely for two as well if we're using the posh cups. It's a 400ml glass jobbie with a sealed lid that has a filter built into it. Just right for a good mugful with a warm up. I got it from Atkinsons of Lancaster. I can bore at an Olympic level about Atkinsons of Lancaster, who are basically coffee roasters but carry a wide range of teas in big jars. They've grown in recent years and now has a big mail-order operation as well as a chain of cafés around the city itself, so inevitably some of the quirky magic of the original shop has gone, but it's definitely worth the voyage.

The bitterness and astringency of plain small leaf black tea is too much for me these days, unless I'm very careful with the timing. For everyday I like a 3 to 1 mix of black tea and lapsang souchong. Being a Lancashire lass myself originally I scorn Yorkshire tea and use Atkinson's Lancaster Blend as the base. Alternatively Atkinsons do a tea called Russian Caravan – it's not really Russian, more Chinese as it's supposed to evoke the Silk Road across the steppes and the smoke of camel-dung fires along the way. It's really keemun with a little lapsang to enhance the smokiness without overdoing it.

I'm strictly hot chocolate nowadays from being a coffee addict. No idea why but it's suiting me fine.

I don't drink tea very often, but I take it with a tiny bit of honey, no milk. I will occasionally have green or herbal tea, but I am a dedicated coffee drinker.

DH has a green tea every morning, he went off coffee because it made his heart rate increase.

Tea sadly has always repulsed me, from being a child I just don’t like the smell of it, it turns my stomach. I wish I did like it, because so many times when you’re in work, or visiting friends they don’t have decent coffee because they only drink tea, or they have only instant coffee. I carry a couple of coffee bags in my handbag now. Also tea drinkers have no problem consuming the daily recommended fluid levels, whereas I can’t drink 6-8 cups of coffee a day, I do have decaf as well but not that quantity.

SueDonim, I like my tea very weak, too. Also I think it’s less likely to stain my teeth badly.

NannyJan53

Went off tea when it made me sick when pregnant. DS is 47 now and I have never drunk tea since, just tastes horrible to me know. Drink only 2 cups of coffee a day now.

Exactly the same for me NannyJan don't even like the smell of tea now. Strange isn't it.

I used to hate tea and drank numerous cups of coffee through the day. Then, suddenly I couldn’t stand the smell of coffee and swapped to tea (like a duck to water) with milk and sugar. I still don’t drink coffee at home, but will have the odd latte when I’m out.

I loath tea! It must be genetic…one of my earliest memories is from when I was about 4. Getting heavy persuasion from my grandparents to have a sup. They didn’t succeed. I don’t like the smell even. As for drinking it, just don’t like the taste, I feel my taste buds are shrinking and once it’s gone down, a tad nauseous.
I do like some of the fruit teas that don’t contain black tea and I can just about stomach green tea if it’s made from fresh leaf, not the teabags. However, coffee, that’s another thing altogether!