Found an interesting article in the print edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Wednesday 24 August 2011), but unfortunately I wasn't able to locate it on their website. You'll have to rely on my questionable retelling of it.
There's not actually much to it. It's an article telling the stories of three different Turkish people living in Germany, and the headline of the first one is 'Tee tranken sie aus Marmaladengläsern' (They drank tea out of jam jars).
Mehmet Kaymaksiz talks of what it was like when he first arrived in Germany in 1964:
'Es gab nicht so wie heute in jeder Stadt Dönerladen oder türkische Einkaufmärkte, die ersten Monate haben wir unseren Tee aus Marmaladengläsern getrunken.'
(It wasn't like it is now. There weren't Kebab stands or Turkish shops in every city or town. The first month we drank our tea out of jam jars)
I thought all three stories were fascinating, but this one glimpse of what it was like to be a guest worker in a strange land stuck out for me. And that no matter how difficult it might've got later, he could always look back and say to himself, 'Well, at least I never had to drink tea out of a jam jar again.'
Maybe not. Tea out of any receptacle seems like it'd still be tea. Delicious and refreshing nevertheless. Might have to go polish off some of my favourite jam jars.
Maybe this is like the Southern US propensity to drink tea out of Mason jars which are like jam jars. I've always wanted a Mason jar to drink tea out of. Though I need one with a handle since I'm not a fan of ice tea.
ReplyDeleteIf I drank hot tea out of a Mason jar, I'm sure I'd pour it boiling hot into an ice cold jar or vice versa and crack that glass. No more Mason jar in any case. Am sure of it.
ReplyDeleteI store iced tea in a fridge in a kimchi jar, sometimes. I love those mason jars...I'm a huge jar re-user myself...grew up in a family of avid jar re-users. Some of our cups we drink out of are actually mustard jars.
ReplyDeleteI got really happy the other day, when I was at a friend's house and went to the cupboard and found the same mustard yar, that they were using as a glass as well. It has a convenient handle even!