A mugs game

Buying mugs is easy, but having a great mug for a cup of tea is hard.

It seems I have no trouble buying mugs. I have plenty. Nice ones I was attracted to in op shops mainly, ones I like having in my house, and they are fine for a cup of coffee. But a good mug for a cup of tea - that is something else all together. And that is a much more important cup to have because I usually only have one cup of coffee at home but a cup of tea, well I may have two or three of those a day in winter.


And in fact, despite this lovely, and inexplicably brown cup collection my favourite cup to drink coffee from is this Peter Rabbit cup.

Which I think - though I could be wrong - was gifted to Baby by K's mother when he was born. And which, therefore, seems an inappropriate coffee cup. But I don't care, it's perfect.

But tea, for tea, I am still looking for a cup. The look is important, the feel even more so, and in this case size really does matter, perhaps more than anything. Though shape is crucial too. For tea you need a much bigger cup than for coffee but not something so big that the tea in the bottom will go cold before you have a chance to finish it. You just need it to hold the perfect amount of tea. And it needs to feel nice in your hands of course. And it is amazing how hard it is to find a mug that fits the bill. I know because I've been looking and though I've seen cups lately that seem almost great but when I held them they just didn't seem right.

And the more I write about it, the more I think, what a fucking idiot I am. Why the fuck do I think I need a perfect tea cup. Just make a pot of tea and refill one of those smaller cups! Perfect tea cup! What has this world come to?!

'Ave a cup of tea (PM)

I'm in a land of intermittent wifi so I'm going to have to talk fast, but I am fully on board with this tea caper. I've always enjoyed a tea. I have it black with a squeeze of lemon and sometimes, when I really want to treat myself, I add a little sugar. That's five blissful minutes right there. And unlike coffee, tea is all delight and no craving. I never jones for a tea, I just sometimes think 'ooh, tea. Yes please'. You know who does jones for tea though? The people of Wales. The people in the office I was in were bonkers for tea. I reckon they would break for it every hour, no joke. It seriously compromised their productivity. They claimed it was because of the cold weather and it's true, a cup of tea really warms you up. There was one chap there  who had a pack of mcvitties dark chocolate digestives in his top drawer and he would have one with each cup of tea. Bloody lovely it was. 

You know what else is lovely, this secret river shit I was telling you about on Monday. Check out where I am writing this from. 

Phwoar!

'Ave a cup of tea (AM)

The Misses Soft Crab love coffee. I'm sure you know that because we sing it's praises all the time. Add it a Tuesday to make it terrific, write haiku about it, just generally roll around in our love for it. We effing love it. Just had one. Best thing I've done all day.

But you know what else is good? Tea.

Russeth told me recently he didn't get tea. He said people at work were always having a cup of tea and he couldn't figure out why. He said he tried it to see what all the fuss was about but he still didn't get it. His loss.

Years ago I lived with Miguel who is a tea-drinker extraordinaire. His habit is basically chronic, but I can't recommend this kind of housemate highly enough. There was pretty much always a pot of tea on the go. These days I rarely make a pot, though it is a superior tea experience.

I like the taste of tea and I like having a hot drink and I love it to cut through the sweetness of a sweet treat. But in my current stage of life I also just effing dig an excuse to sit down for five minutes.

When Baby was about 1.5-2 and still breastfeeding I used to think it was basically his equivalent to a cup of tea. Newbie is in that phase now. They don't need it, but who doesn't like a bit of quiet time with a warm drink. Babes have boobs, we have tea.

I have about five cups of tea a day. Not because I want to have that many but because I'm constantly trying to force five quiet minutes into my day but always miss-timing it.

My friend Housemaid was wearing a cute ring last week with a tiny teacup on it. She told me her friend made a range of rings with teapots and cups because it reminded her of tea with her Nan and made her feel relaxed to look at them. I thought that maybe I should replace a few cups of tea with some visual cue to relax. But who has time to come up with a replacement?!? Not me!

Ok, tea time!