A friend on facebook pointed out this Christopher Hitchens piece on tea, which then pointed to this essay by George Orwell. As Orwell anticipates, I disagree with him on a number of matters of tea preparation--all of them, in fact, except the point (which Hitchens emphasizes) that tea is best consumed in its loose-leaf form, the above-quoted, and this:
Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tealover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.
Perhaps it would be best to title this post "In which George Orwell discovers the Starbucks drink philosophy 50 years early."
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