£1 of Tetley tea

I am trying to remedy the tea situation at work, because the tea brand they have (PG Tips) tastes rank. So today I bought myself a box of 40 Tetley tea bags. Somehow I am skeptical: the very look of the box with its stuck up middle class Englishman that we see in the advertisement campaign make me think it'll be mediocre at best, but it can't get worse, right? At least it was only one pound.

The tea situation at work

So I survived my first week at work. In fact, I can safely say that I managed to strive: my direct line manager was impressed by the progress I made in such a short period of time, how I easily found my place in the company and how I already brought things on the table. There is only one thing I am truly struggling with: the tea. See, the tea brought by the bosses is PG Tips. And I am not a big fan of PG Tips. Let's speak frankly: it's rank. And on my first day I bought a bag of Typhoo in the nearest convenient store on my way to work, not thinking there were stocks of tea available for everyone at the office. And Typhoo is just as nasty. So I need to find something for next week. I can use the vile brews for a bit as I need my daily fix of caffeine, but I will need something drinkable before long. Nothing too fancy, but a tea I can enjoy. And share with my colleagues of course, as they don't have to suffer.

Tea and Milk again (argh!)

I blogged recently about the cup of tea I received in an antenatal class that had been spoiled with milk. Well, it seems that history repeats itself and in a very short time period and in pretty much the same circumstances. My wife and I went this morning to another antenatal class, this time at the hospital. After the class, we went to one of the hospital's cafés for a quick nibble and a drink. I am not sure if it was a Costa Coffee but they were serving their hot drinks in a Costa cup. I ordered a cup of tea... and this is what I received. For the record, I never, ever asked for milk in it. It was absolutely vile. You can see everything wrong in a cuppa. And to make matters worse it was PG Tips. Honestly, how can anyone drink that? We had too little time for me to ask for a new cup without milk and I needed a caffeine intake, so I drank from this chalice. Some of its content anyway, I could not swallow all that mud so there was half of it left when we got home, by the time warm and thus all the more disgusting. I threw the rest in the sink.

Earl Grey anecdote

I have mentioned here how important my morning dose of tea is for me to get through a working day. Last week at work, there was no more of Twining's Earl Grey in stock. Instead I had to take PG Tips. I hate PG Tips. I only take it when I need a quick tea fix. So when one of my German colleagues asked me how I was this morning, I answered: "Terrible, there is no more Earl Grey." She replied: "You are thinking like an Englishman." Shock horror. She was true of course. And this deserves to be a great unknown line. I said: "Now my day is taking a turn for the worse". This does deserve to be another great unknown line. The tragic irony is that my day did get worse. Nevertheless, it was a funny moment, if unsettling.

Tea and survival

Yesterday, there was no more Twinings' Earl Grey, which is what I have usually have with my breakfast. I survive starvation and exhaustion at work with a beaver's diet, but I also need tea for survival. I have one cup in the morning, and it is usually enough to keep me alert for the day, especially if I struggled to sleep the night before. There's free tea at work, a choice of either Earl Grey from Twinings or some banal Tetley or PG Tips tea, which tastes like rough mud. It wakes up all right, but it is much less enjoyable. I prefer Twinings in any case and since their Earl Grey is fancier, I just have it. But there was no Earl Grey, so I had to go to the other kind, whatever it was. In my state, a bit asleep light headed with hunger and in need of caffeine, I threw two bags in the mug. My colleague in charge of supplies laughed about it, I apologize saying I was definitely in need of tea to wake me up if I couldn't count to two. She said: "Oh but have more, it's not rationed." Thankfully it is not. I wonder how I could survive a war if tea and sugar were rationed. I certainly wouldn't be able to go to the front! Anyway, I thought what she said was a great unknown line.