dunking my biscuit

one of my favourite dunking biscuits

Saw Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and really enjoyed it. I'm always on the look out for references to tea in pop culture, so I was thrilled halfway through the movie when Judi Dench's character Evelyn explains not just Builder's Tea, but how to properly dunk a biscuit in it. Here's the exact snippet of dialogue from the film:

Evelyn: Yes
[It is builder's tea]
Evelyn: , we dunk biscuits into it.
Sunaina's Brother: Dunk?
Evelyn: Means lowering the biscuit into the tea and letting it soak in there and trying to calculate the exact moment before the biscuit dissolves, when you whip it up into your mouth and enjoy the blissful union of biscuits and tea combined. It's more relaxing than it sounds. 

I love this sort of thing.  You know I'll be doing this very thing with my biscuits the next several weeks. I suspect there'll be quite a bit of broken biscuit down at the bottom of my Builder's Tea.

The Telegraph had an article on the subject a few years ago, and went to the trouble to recommend Tea and Biscuits? Better make it a Keemun.

And I quote:

No, according to Tim Clifton, the former director of the UK Tea Council, each biscuit has a perfect brew to accompany it. He and Simon Pope, the new product development controller at Fox's Biscuits, have coauthored the Biscuit and Tea Tasting Guide.

Why haven't I heard of this until now? The Biscuit and Tea Tasting Guide is now something I must have. Immediately.

They say a Ginger Nut goes well with Chai. Wait, Ginger Nut? That's no way to talk about our Robert Godden. Oh, you meant the Ginger Nut biscuit. Oh, ok. 

If Earl Grey's your tea of choice, they say you might consider a lemon biscuit. I can see that. Nice call Biscuit and Tea Tasting Guide. You've not yet led me astray.

They only make a brief mention of chocolate-covered biscuits in the article (strong Kenyan tea to go with that one if you were wondering), and I certainly hope chocolate-covered biscuits get a bit more attention in the actual book. It wouldn't be an authoritative source otherwise, would it?

Right near the very end of the article, they offhandedly mention:

'Keemun, from eastern China, should be sipped with a caramel filled biscuit, such as Tunnock's caramel wafter, while squashed fly biscuits require Pu-erh, a nutty Chinese brew.'

That sentence could be parsed to such a degree that an entire new blogpost might result. A Tunnock's caramel wafter? If not that, then some squashed fly biscuits? Squashed flies optional, I hope.

What do you think fellow tea obsessives? Do you 'ave a favourite biscuit to go with your Builder's Tea? Incidentally, I talked about this stuff in give us a slug of that Builder's Tea, yeah? Go check it out. It's not going to hurt you.

Off to dunk my biscuit, as it were.

Tea in rough waters

Have had a decent day today. Stressful, but all of what was thrown at me, I dealt with relatively well. To what do I attribute my ability to deal?

Well, tea obviously.

That's a bit of an exaggeration, but only a bit. I dealt with a frustrated client early this morning, and while I calmly explained how I could help him solve his problem, I was sipping on a Ceylon Nuwara.

Then packed up my tea in my bag that I take on the train, and went to an appointment with a client who's not yet paid me for work I did in March. Was still very calm. Somehow. And while I was talking to him, there was Assam Sephinjuri coursing through my veins.

Taught a class to a group of lawyers, while I polished off the Assam, and grabbed a Chai from an evil corporate coffee shop, who I've mentioned before but won't name again.

But the real stress of the day occurred when I got home for lunch and there were multiple emergencies (personal and business-related). I was drinking Jun Chiyabari Oolong at this point, and I assure you it helped.

Now, I'm off to proctor a test that I spent a good deal of the weekend preparing, and I've packed a thermos of Assam Mangalam, as well as a travel mug with China Wu Lu green tea in it.

Am sure I'll be fine the rest of the day. Am even rather certain that the evening will be ok.

teatime with the buck of the stars

What?

Another day?

What on earth am I going to write about? How about Starbucks? Yeah. Starbucks.

Sometimes on 4square, I mention that I'm at a Starbucks. Then it's announced on Twitter, and I regularly get a snide comment from someone that I'm supping with the dark side. I beg to differ, but there's no way I'll win this argument in a short blogpost. If at all.

I think the first thing that irritates people is that the tea at Starbucks is nearly as bad as the coffee. I'm not going to argue that. They have teabags with decent tea. For teabags, that is. The English Breakfast is tolerable. I'm not an Earl Grey fan, so I don't drink that.

The green tea that isn't flavoured is not unappetizing, and the Chai is really quite good. To be clear, I rarely drink Chai. I'm far from an expert.

But Starbucks in Munich started offering free wifi this year. So I come here to work.


That's right. I'm there now. Drinking tea.

But I had a shot of espresso first. In a little ceramic mug. Do they even have ceramic mugs at the Starbucks in the US? I don't remember them, but maybe I wasn't paying attention.

Then I ordered some English Breakfast, which I drowned in Whole Milk and enough brown sugar to cover up the true taste of the tea. Am trying to be polite, but I guess the way I described drinking it tells you how I really feel.

Thanks for the free wifi Starbucks. It's really convenient.

And your coffee's not so bad.

Compared to Dunkin Donuts at least.