Cookbook talk:A Nice Cup of Tea

More step by step instructions? Sj

No Cream
I very strongly disaggree that cream should be added to tea. Adding cream gives it a strange taste somewhat similar to the taste of canned condensed milk. When I was young in England the milk sold then was not homogenised. The cream used to float to the top. Most people would pour off the cream and use the underlying milk to add to the tea. In my opinion Cream should NEVER be added to the tea. It spoils the taste. Even regular homogenised milk is a bit too creamy. Tea is NOT like coffee where of course cream is prefered. I do aggree with most of the rest of your description including the preference for loose tea over tea bags. It is not only the flow of the water over the tea that is significant but also that in the course of manufacture of the tea bag product the tea leaves  are more finely chopped up, often almost into a powder.

My mother  would not have Lipton tea in the house and I am often puzzled to  to understand why so many people in the U.S. seem to  think that Earl Grey is the quintesential English Tea. Earl Grey is a tea the flavour of which has been modified by the addition of a strong spice. I personally drink tea regularly and almost never drink coffee. I find the spice in Earl Grey over powers the tea and I do not like it. Frank C. Jones frankcjones@comcast.net