Note to Self: Before you offer a guest in your home a drink...be sure you know HOW to make it!
Matt had a friend over tonight and I thought I would be polite and ask if "anyone" would like a drink. Matt asks for a coffee, which I am now a pro at doing the "right way" and his friend says he would just like a cup of tea with a bit of milk. At first, I was relieved because I didn't think we had any tea -- so I announce this. However, dear hubby points out where the tea is that we DO have. D'oh! (Picture a deer in headlights...that would be me at this moment.)
Now I know this may sound really silly...but I have never made a cup of tea. It's not like I thought it was rocket science or anything, and I feel stupid admitting that I haven't made one, but I also didn't want to insult our fellow British guest by making my first cup a crap cup of tea. So what does an American who has been transplanted in Great Britain for 13 months do? If you answered 'carry on pretending to make the cup of tea until she can get smoke signals from the kitchen or otherwise alert her husband that she needs his assistance' you are absolutely CORRECT!!
I didn't need to use the secret bird-call or anything, but Matt figured out I was in distress as the kettle-boil came to an end and I wasn't stirring. The coffee...no problem...I know coffee...it's my thing now.
"Honey..." I whisper under my breath with clenched teeth, "how do I DO tea?"
He grins at me and like a good man, without drawing attention to my lack of tea making skills, drops the teabag into the mug. I look at him as if to say, "I figured that much...now what?" and he points to the kettle, still grinning. I pour in the scolding water from the kettle until he motions for me to stop. He mouths for me to "watch" and swills the teabag in the water several times with the spoon before pinning it on the inside of the mug and scooping it out. Then he nods his head towards the fridge for me to get the milk and disappears back into the front room.
Naturally when I re-enter the front room with the two drinks, I do so with confidence as if I knew how to do it all along (secretly hoping the tea wasn't still crap). But at least everyone can have peace of mind in knowing they can come to ours now with expanded drink menu options.
5 comments:
Always good to learn something new :)
How can you not have made a cup of tea yet? I make at least 2-3 a day. Andy doesn't drink 'hot' drinks but tea is all I drink at night. I did use to drink hot tea back in the States also though.
You should try it, it is YUMMY! :)
I'm not a fan of tea at all. Matt likes it, but usually makes it for himself. The only time I will have tea is at my MILs...but I prefer coffee or a cold drink even to tea.
I luuuurve tea, drink a ton of it. Funny thing though, I had the same kind of experience when Jeff's parents came to visit last year, but with coffee. Jeff had the *brilliant* idea of offering his mom a cappuccino, from our new machine(which I hadn't quite figured out yet). I yelled from the kitchen that it looked like we didn't have any coffee and Jeff comes in and says loudly "we just bought some, what do you mean?!" and I...throught gritted teeth said "We. don't. have. any." haha, I was mortified! I gave her a diet coke for her caffeine fix...so you did better than me! :)
I'm with you, hot tea ...bleah. :)
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