Seany thanks for this. But I am afraid you missed my point a little. Firstly I was deliberately being a little silly about English foibles (which I actually enjoy very much - I just have a satirical kink in my mind and I cannot seem to shake the habit). But I would also say that having an essentially English upbringing myself I also enjoy poking fun at those English foibles. Poking fun at English foibles seems to me to be another English foible possessed by many English I think. It has always been part of the culture as far as I have experienced it (how on earth to you otherwise explain "Monty Python").
But the key point I was making was not about whether one has a cup of tea or a pot of tea (my "in-laws" in fact always asserted that a "nice cup of tea" is ALWAYS made in a proper bone china pot. None of those new fangled tea bag things for them!)
My key point was about the fact (in my experience) that the word
"nice" always seems to be included in the phrase - hence "a nice cup of tea". And that term is usually used whether it is made in a pot or otherwise. The word also exemplifies for me that old fashioned middle class English value that the English had (and some may still aspire to) - that of being "nice people". Also exemplified in my Hyacinth Bucket reference and in this old Flanagan and Allen song from ww2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8YXU1Yrfq8
In fact no less than George Orwell wrote an entire essay about how one goes about making " a nice cup of tea" - he too used that phrase, his essay being called just that - "A Nice Cup of Tea" and in it he said among a long list of essential elements
"First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays — it is economical, and one can drink it without milk — but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase ‘a nice cup of tea’ invariably means Indian tea. Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities — that is, in a teapot." When you read the essay in its entirety it accords pretty much with what many "serious" tea drinkers still say today. It seems that the English tea ceremony used to be (though it may no longer be so strict) as convoluted and serious as the Japanese tea ceremony. (Though involving much less bowing)
🙂
My answer seems a little long but perhaps you can tell from it that I too enjoy a "nice cup of tea." (I will proselytize here a bit and say that my preferred "nice cup of tea" is a Chinese Tieguanyin tea - a form of Oolong tea which has delicate flavors but enough body to be somewhat like Indian tea which most of us tea drinkers drink every day). And I have to agree with my in-laws and Orwell - the best "nice cup of tea" always seems to be made in a pot and drunk from proper bone china tea cups. But that's another story.
😉
By the way (and here is the only camera connection I can possibly make to my post. Tieguanyin is named after the Buddhist "Goddess of Mercy" called Guanyin in China or Kwannon in Japan. If the name Kwannon sounds familiar to photographers, it should - it was the original name of the camera company we now know as Canon. Phew - got that out of my system.
🙂
