Tea breakdown – tea the Italian way

When your old comforts was not as expected

Meltdown

I’m ashamed to say it, but I had an egoistic meltdown..….over tea…… not my finest moment I admit. All my newfound peace, calm and serenity out the window….over tea….

Italians are not tea drinkers, at least not in the same way as somebody who has lived 11 years in the North of the UK is used to. The black, strong brew that grows hairs on your chest and that you can leave the spoon standing upright in all by itself. Milky and strong – THAT kind of tea.

English breakfast tea

On Sardinia the strongest tea I get served is English Breakfast tea – with lemon. Alright; ‘in Rome do as the Romans’, I drank English Breakfast tea with lemon, and kind of got used to it and liked it. BUT, then summer came and the tea started to be served tepid. OK, the first time I thought it was a mistake, and not being a person who wanted to complain (and indeed not being able to complain in a language I still don’t speak) – I ignored it. Then the second time I started to feel a tad annoyed. The third time ….the tea was served with a teabag to steep in lukewarm water. So tepid the teabag did not give off its golden dark taste, and on a day I had migraine = a total meltdown!

making fuss

I made A LOT OF FUSS;  attacking poor Sardinian man, asking what he would have said if his cappuccino had been wrong!! I was fussing and complaining over “horrible tea”, almost crying and went totally into behaving like a spoilt child who did not get her sweeties.

Sardinian man said “Why so much fuss, why are you so upset, it’s not the end of the world”…. But YES to me it kind of felt like it there and then!! (he would have protested too if his cappuccino did not live up to the expectations – although probably with less fuss)

my ‘shaky cuppa’

Tea is more than a beverage, tea is a ritual, it’s something you do to make you feel good, relax. It’s self-care, self preservation, time to centre yourself and breathe and let the world go by. Tea is the drink you turn to in times of distress (the ‘shaky cuppa’ as my Scottish colleagues turned to when things were rough) and in times of peace and calm.

Adventures and new places are wonderful, but when many things are new and unfamiliar it’s good to have some of your old comforts. When you feel that things change too much or too fast around you and that everything is unfamiliar and that there are many things you compromise on, these little things like having your tea the way you like it becomes important. Maybe lots more important than they ‘should’ be. But we like to cling to what’s left of familiarity. And maybe trying to maintain some ‘normality’ in the form of well-known, cozy habits.

tea is more than ‘just’ tea

But that is OK, let tea or other habits be our support system when we need it. We find safety in that, safety in well-known routines (even if it’s just a cup of tea). We don’t like to change too fast – although we can accept that change sometimes needs to happen for us to move forward, maybe even to a place we want to be – but some familiar things help this seem less dramatic – even if it is ‘JUST’ tea. It’s easier to embrace new things when you have some of your comforts with you. You can face anything after being fortified with a cuppa!

Sardinian man, bless him, must have had a quiet word with the staff as every time I now come back my tea is more than boiling hot – it is steamed! Oh well, I can live with that even if it kind of changes the taste of the tea a little bit. I just have to wait a while before I drink it. Better too warm than too cold.

A proper cuppa in the morning

Fortunately I can buy really good tea in the supermarket and make a proper ‘cuppa’ at home (with gorgeous milk from Arborea) – so zen and calm can be found at least every morning. And I choose to enjoy my steamed English Breakfast tea with lemon when I go to a café. Even if the serving staff give me strange looks when I ask for hot tea and it is over 30 degrees outside. I don’t care if they think I’m a strange foreigner, some comforts and habits are just too precious to give up.

A post I did for another blog about Nebida – where the guys at the Oasi bar make a really good pot of tea

Lots of love,

Bee