h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

She's from Yorkshire, she'll probably claim they invented cake

It's all coffee houses in my part of the US. But I wouldn't drink tea in any of them; outside of the cities (maybe) I don't think there is a restaurant in America that knows how to serve a decent cup of tea.

As often as not it's a cup of microwaved water with the teabag served on the side. And the tea is floor sweepings.

Wish I could take you all to Cron & Lanz in Göttingen. They just dispense with the question of whether it's a tea or a coffee shop because it's quite clearly all about the cake

So true - that is a place where strong, black coffee is necessary to balance the richness of the cake - the flavour of tea would be smothered

In which case you are drinking the wrong sort of tea! Lapsang Soushong is amazingly smokey and Earl Grey would hold up well though I don't drink it myself.

I'm never really certain about cake.

Lil, I am still shuddering at you descripton of American tea. The pointless vileness of it.

I love a combination of Lapsang and Earl Gray with Granny Cake..(all those saltanas).

I prefer my coffee on its own. Triple strength Esspresso. I have one of those Italian Lavasa things you put on a low gas and wait for it to percolate. Columbian dark roasted beans.

This place does good stuff.

http://www.coffeebeanshop.co.uk/

A combination of Lapsang and Earl Grey? my Ma used to drink Earl Grey and Dargeeling.

No coffee talk here, thank you; this is my journal and it is about tea and about two guys who threw their hearts into something, created a rare and special thing, and had the rug pulled out from underneath them. And meanwhile, in another part of Edinburgh, Fred Goodwin gets to keep his knighthood.

B

PS - I do mean it about coffee being (a) off topic and (b) unwelcome in this thread and will yikes any future posts accordingly. I doubt he yikes will be upheld, one can but hope.

Sorry.

The tea combination was taught me by a former girlfriend. We did everything properly about warming the tea pot as well.

Yes Darjeeling is also excellent.

Am I weird? I like even Lapsang Souchong or Earl Grey with a splash of milk. I don't like tea without milk very much at all. There was a phase between my working out I couldn't drink cow's milk and supermarkets stocking goat's milk where I drank an AWFUL lot of cups of tea that depressed me. Though Lapsang Souchong is acceptable with lemon. Soya milk was, well, actually, it left you with a drink that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

And I can't stand Darjeeling. Milk ruins it. It's vilely bitter and cloying without milk. Bleh. Assam, any day. Tea-shelf currently contains Assam, English Beakfast, Earl Grey, Rose Earl Gray (for Sunday afternoons), Lapsang Souchong, and Russian Caravan (ooh, look, an Oxford comma!). I love Treasures of Heaven, which is a Yunnan tea, but I haven't found any, not even in the fancy tea shops in Covent Garden, for years.

I would love to have a proper tea-shop near me. There's a place that does fancy cakes I should investigate, perhaps, but any place that makes a fuss about the fabulousness of it's *ahem* (sorry Ben) coffee, usually makes the tea with the hot water from the coffee machine which is SACRILEGE also makes horrible tea. What's the point of advertising expensive organic teas if you then slop them about in repeatedly-heated not-boiling water from the steam tank? EH?

Mind you, unfiltered London water makes slightly grim tea full stop. Too lime-scaley.

I did once go to Betty's, the York branch, and it was the most fantastic mix of genteel and chintzy, and friendly, welcoming and serving excellent food and tea. I adored it. But then, the atmosphere exactly suited the area - Georgian houses and leisurely strolling.

I am very sad about Ben's lost tea-shop. It sounds like exactly the sort of place I'd've ADORED.

Nothing wrong with an Oxford comma.

http://www.verbicidemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Oxford-Comma.jpg

I still remember being on holidays in London when I was about 5. We were sleeping in a cheap hostel because it was a trip with dad's school. The breakfast room was in the cellar and the tea tasted of chlorine.

Tea was really big in Russia when I visited. Chai they call it. But I couldn't stand the amount of sugar they added. Never milk. And it's done with a Samovar where the water is constantly boiling...not freshly boiled which is a must for me.

I'm fine with milk...but no sugar please. Assam is my favourite blend though I think.

I can't remember when I haad milk in my tea for the last time. I only take sugar.

>>She's from Yorkshire, she'll probably claim they invented cake<<
moi?

of COURSE we invented cake...

I love Russian tea. On the overnight trains it was best, with the added taste of coal dust. mmmmhhh

I'm looking at that packet of Darjeeling now with added interest. Research is needed. Maybe even cake.

Do they do overnight trains now?

We went from Budupest to Moscow. It took nearly 3 days. The Samovar was always on the boil...and they piped mournful Russian music into your cabin. I spent hours gazing at the vastness of the Ukraine from my upper bunk.

I've obviously never had a proper cup of tea.

Ben, would you please introduce me to that pleasure at some point during the Meet weekend?

Ooh. Tricky. I'll have to bring a kettle with me.

overnight trains?
that was in the 70s and 80s but I'm pretty sure they still have them.