I’d argue there’s nothing more comforting than a well-made cup of tea.
A cuppa can console or fortify. Warm us from within. It can be savoured in solitude or enjoyed with family and friends. Yes, there’s something elemental in sharing with others a cup from the same freshly brewed pot. In watching the steam slink from the spout like a spell.
It’s a humble but revered act. Water coaxing dried leaves into liquid comfort – a domestic alchemy.
Tea making is ritualistic and evocative. While the kettle boils, I’ll sometimes think of my uncle with his “three heaped sugars, stirred anti-clockwise, thank you” – or the lifelong friends who make two cups from a single bag (one likes hers strong, the other weaker – perhaps the ultimate in divine companionship, if not frugality?)
And to the vessel? Do you sip from thin-lipped china or slurp from a sturdy mug? A little sweet something to dunk – or not to dunk?
I have a whole drawer of teas at home, and various accoutrements for the making of: vintage silver infusers, new-fangled silicone spheres, and a hand-carved wooden teaspoon (made by my husband) used to measure out the Darjeeling, the genmaicha, the chamomile.
A friend once confided she believes the pinnacle of really knowing someone is in them making you the perfect cup of tea. It sounds simple, straightforward, but the variables are endless. Time, temperature, the leaves (loose, bagged, fresh, aged), milk, mylk, sugar, honey – all converge in a stir to make or break the brew.
So yes, perhaps that’s why a good cup of tea is a litmus test of knowing another. Why holding that cup in your hands is so reassuring whether it comes with sympathy, gossip (now, apparently, known colloquially as ‘tea’), or as the lukewarm addition to a Mothers’ Day breakfast tray.
Be it served with a dainty sweet thing, sipped while perusing your favourite publication, or, most indulgently of all, savoured in delicious silence, tea never fails to meet our needs in our time of need.
Sally Schofield
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