Tea

A morning which allows the opportunity to nurse a pot of tea while scanning the net and the papers: bliss.

I love tea; one of my mottos - "all tea is good tea". I love the taste as it rolls across the tongue; the sight of infusion seeping from the leaves; the change in flavour as your pot ages; playing around with blends (my current fave is two parts English Breakfast to one part Blackberry Scented).

I love the subtle sensation of the active ingredients in tea hitting the various parts of my body - brain, gut, muscles.

For a while, many years ago, I took my tea black - but after a holiday in Far North Queensland, where the practice more closely resembles percolation to infusion, I reverted to adding milk.

Today's cafe culture is not always tea-friendly:

"Can I have a white tea, please?"

"We don't have white tea."

"OK ... can I have a normal English Breakfast tea, with milk?"

"Sure, no probs."

Also, I've learnt, when ordering tea in a new cafe, to ask for "milk on the side" to avoid being served something resembling the lower reaches of the Ganges. Still, "all tea is good tea" ... so down the hatch it goes.

Herbal teas? Fantastic, love them; but black tea is my staple. Oh, and if you're wondering, the best place to go for tea in Berwick is the Aroma Hut ... no, not a sponsored endorsement, a simple statement of fact: the tea they serve is superb.

Here's to the rest of a wonderful hour.