Bergamot of champignons

A patch of self-reassessment has arisen and I’ve decided that I don’t actually enjoy what I’m drinking in the morning. At school there would be these huge urns sitting at the head of the dining hall that would serve enough tea for 200 boys every morning. I only ever saw them filled once (I had been in a food fight the day before that had involved choc ices and oversized ketchup bottles and had to be at breakfast early as part of my punishment) and they required a ratio of two huge cauldrons of water to one tea bag the size of a paperback. By the end of breakfast the ‘tea’ in the urns would be quite passable if sold commercially as a kettle descaler, paint stripper or industrial spermicide. Years of exposure to this explains why I take my tea with milk and two sugars.

I’m going through my mid-morning crisis because I miss a cup of cha that throws my eyelids open after the first mouthful. I currently have time in the morning to have a cup of tea but not enough time to wake up properly without chemical stimulus. I usually drink Earl Gray but I find it doesn’t have the punch I’m after. I want to hotwire my morning without resorting to coffee as I drink more than enough java at the office. I’ve tried leaving the Earl Gray tea bag in for longer but then you just end up with a bitter after taste that I want to describe as burnt bergamot but I’m not entirely sure what bergamot tastes like.

So off to the tea store I trekked (I actually dropped in while shopping with Robs and her folks two weekends ago so a more accurate description would be “I came across the tea store in the course of my travels”) where the delightful Loraine listened carefully to my requirements and suggested Irish Breakfast (like English Breakfast but less likely to get drunk and try to take advantage of the sugar pot). They only sell the tea as loose leaves so I brought a new strainer and I now drink a mug of Irish Breakfast with my coco pops. It’s not quite what I wanted (would you believe not enough bergamot this time) so I expect I’ll be heading back to Loraine in a couple of weeks. Perhaps I should take the time before I go to find out what bergamot is.


Note – Don’t try and work out the title. I came up with it before this post was finished but wasn’t able to get a link to mushroom tea into the entry. However, I liked the pun enough that I left it in.