Surrounded by Tea Snobs
I like a cup of tea as much as the next personand it turns out that's quite a lot more than most, given that I'm English, and was brought up with the cultural knowledge that tea solves pretty much anything and everything. Broken window? Make a cup of tea. Death of a friend? Make a cup of tea.
I'm continually surprised however by the emergence of the tea snob brigade. I imagine this is an extension of the whole hipster movement, and the need to be “special”, and to make other things “special” in some way, shape or form.
One of my co-workers refuses to let us make him hot drinks any morehe takes his cup to the kitchen, and makes his own. He doesn't trust us to use the teapot, or to let the tea brew “properly”. Apparently we might do something horrific, like squeeze the teabag, or stir the teapot, instead of standing there like an idiot, rocking it back and forth for a few minutes.
It probably doesn't help that I famously (or at least famously within my family and close friends) don't appreciate food and drink as much as I perhaps should. To me it is all just fuela means to an end.
When I am tired, I drink coffeeon-purpose. When I need to sleep, I drink hot chocolateon-purpose. I often forget to eat while engrossed in whatever I'm doing, and wonder why I'm shaking. When I'm thirsty, I'll make a mug of tea, and gulp it down while everybody else is sipping awayoften causing them stare incredulously as I dump my empty mug and get on with what I was doing before.