My perfect cup of tea

I sit on the sofa with a computer in my lap and a cup of my favourite tea in hand. Choco power is black tea with chocolate flavour and it’s perfect with a glimmer of milk. It smells wonderful and you can easily detect the chocolate scent which isn’t too strong despite the fact thatit is a chocolate tea.

But tea wasn’t always my favourite drink, not that I didn’t like it, I just didn’t drink it very often. As a child I usually only drank it when I was ill; my Mum would put a tea bag in the cup and pour boiling water over it. After a couple of minutes she would take out the tea bag and add four tea spoons of sugar; she knew that I wouldn’t drink it if it wasn’t sweet enough. Then she would put the cup on my night stand if I was in my room or on the coffee table in front of the sofa if I was in the living room. Usually I forgot about the fruit flavoured tea waiting for me and I would notice it when it was already cold.

When I was healthy I would drink cold cocoa; I drank hot cocoa only if I was visiting my late grandmother. She had a special recipe for my hot cocoa and she knew I wouldn’t drink it any other way; the way she made it for me was perfect. She removed the kettle from the stove just before the milk boiled and poured it in the cup with about five big spoons of cocoa already in it. Then she added three tea spoons of sugar and voila, there was my perfect hot cocoa.

In high school we would drink coffee. We weren’t children anymore so it was only appropriate for us to drink all sorts of coffee; usually it was cappuccino or caffè latte but on special occasions we went to a cafe where they served all sorts of flavoured coffees in huge glasses – you could have vanilla, coconut, chocolate, marzipan, you name it. Once a week I would go there with my girlfriends on our way from the train station; we would drink the delicious coffee, chat and laugh.  

I continued to drink coffee when I went to university but I realised that I drank way too much of the “black devil” when I had exams so I decided to stop drinking it. I started drinking black tea with milk and now I can’t imagine my day without it.

I enjoy going to the tea shop where they have a big wall covered with shelves, full of huge silver boxes that are filled with tea. I can choose between green tea, black tea, white tea and a lot of different flavours. I usually check out their website and decide on which flavours I want to try out. Then I smell the tea in the shop and each time I’m confronted with a hard decision - I would love to buy them all. Instead, I always buy my favourite Choco power and also choose a different tea with a new flavour which I haven’t had before. The last time I was there I chose hazelnut flavoured tea but when I came home I discovered that it smelled a bit too much like marzipan. I put on my brave face and prepared it; it wasn’t that bad but it was the only time I actually drank it.  

I enjoy preparing my tea; you have to follow a strict procedure for the tea to be perfect. I boil the water and put the bits of tea (I drink realtea) in a strainer. It usually takes me a couple of seconds to decide which cup I want to drink from and when I choose it I put the strainer in and pour the water over. After 7-8 minutes I take the strainer out, add two tea spoons of sugar and a little bit of milk. Then I sit down and enjoy drinking my perfect tea.