It Threw Me Off My Balance

Tea. It’s my all-time favorite beverage. Given a  choice between tea and the finest champagne, I’ll take my cuppa every time.

I also like a nice game of football. And by football, I mean what the rest of the world calls soccer, not that silly American game where you only use your feet every one out of four plays. I’m an American, I’m 71 years old, and I have yet to understand how you can justify calling it football.

So yes, I watched the World Cup which, unlike major league baseball’s World Series, truly is a world event. But it caused a conflict. Specifically, I enjoy a cup of tea whilst watching the games. But in the World Cup, as with all other soccer games, the halves run 45 minutes without breaks. Which means I don’t have a chance during the games to take 5-10 minutes to run out to the kitchen to boil the kettle and brew a pot of tea.

So instead, before each game, I fired up the Mr. Coffee and brewed a pot of my second-favorite drink, a nice French roast. One pot gave me enough coffee to get me through the half. Then at half-time I’d brew another pot, to get me through the second half.

But the World Cup ended December 28th, and I’m finally back to my tea. I don’t know why it took me this long; I guess maybe inertia, aka force of habit.

It’s also the reason I haven’t posted recently. I can only plead guilty by reason of being psychologically off-balance. But I’m back, and awaiting delivery of another package from The English Tea Store. This time I’ve order 2 teas and a coffee:

Cochin Masala Chai

PG Tips

Bewley’s Irish Crème Coffee

PG Tips is my favorite English tea. Of all the various types and blends of tea, when I think “tea,” my mind always goes to PG Tips. It’s a tea I discovered very late in life; in my late ‘60s, in fact. My cousin Elena turned me on to it, and it’s just one more reason I love her.

The Cochin chai is because I’m always on the lookout for a decent chai. More on “chai” in a later post.

Finally, the Irish Crème Coffee because I’m worth spoiling. And sometimes I’d like to try a non-alcoholic Irish Coffee.

And when the World Cup rolls around in another 4 years, I’m pretty sure I’ll be going through this whole thing all over again!