Tea for the younger set

I'm a grandmother. And one of the things I've always done with the grands is have tea parties. I even have special pots and demitasse cups and saucers and the rest of the accoutrements sized for small hands.

When I visit them or they visit me, some of our most comfortable moments are morning tea times.

So I was delighted to come across this article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2678408/Would-let-toddler-drink-tea-It...

Hmm when I was a young boy tea was always allowed for me and my siblings (I was eldest).

That's why you're exceptional - well, one of the reasons.
We were only allowed sweet, milky tea when we were sick.

I didn't like the taste of real tea when I was a kid (probably because my parents only drink Lipton, which I still don't like), but I did drink herbal tea. The heat and flavor were soothing but it doesn't come with most of the health concerns for kids that real tea does.

Tea wasn't really a big thing here when I was a kid - it's only really become a popular alternative to coffee in the past 15-20 years or so. (Tea was something the more hippie-esque people drank.) I didn't like the taste of either tea or coffee when I was little so it was never an issue. If I had a cold my mum made hot water with honey (or hot milk with honey).

I still had "tea parties" though (well, "coffee parties, to be exact) but we put water or squash in the cups instead.

Growing up in England in the '50s and '60s tea was the normal drink for everyone of every age from early morning until late at night.

I can't remember when I started drinking tea. It feels to me, therefore, that I have always done so.

My mom always had tea and I was never very fond it it. Went on a coffee stint for a bit when I learned how to use the maker, not that I had much at a time and it was overly stuffed with milk and sugar. When I had to go on an herbal diet to try and improve my health, I started drinking mint tea, and it became something of a thing for me to make up a tea try with a tea pot, milk and sugar bowls, and a cup all on my mother's old aluminum tray. Was probably one of the only things I would get off the couch for when I was ill most of the day, or at the very least, make up my cup of tea if I could manage the tray myself.

I'm much less delicate about it now.

I was in high school, and went out to dinner with my family to a fairly nice restaurant. All of a sudden, I wanted to be perceived as an adult and not order milk or soda with my meal. I've always disliked coffee and I figured that iced tea was OK in the summer, so hot tea would probably be a tolerable choice, and oh, so sophisticated. :=) I've never looked back.

Constant Comment was my "gateway" tea; Mom started me on it in my early teens. And thus my beverage saga began... :)

Celestial Seasonings was the brand my mom pointed out to me when I decided herbal teas were a good thing. I was young teens or pre-teen at the time.

I usually strart my day with a cup of tea.

I really enjoy tea also, even over coffee which seems to surprise everyone. I find coffee to taste bitter whereas tea is sweet

Continuing the training, the dragons and dinosaurs are learning not to push and roar, but politely share a pot of tea and cookies.

oops, forgot the picture

Love it!!

She’s not at all interested in doing this for dolls or stuffed animals. This is her herd.

Excellent! :)

Unilever offloads black tea business as UK passion for cuppa goes cold (Guardian)

Unilever has called time on the traditional cuppa with a €4.5bn (£3.8bn) deal to sell its tea business, which includes PG Tips and Brooke Bond, to a European private equity firm.

When the company hoisted the “for sale” sign back in 2020 Unilever’s chief executive, Alan Jope, complained that traditional tea drinkers were dying off, while younger consumers preferred coffee and fashionable herbal teas.

Pointing to falling sales of black tea, he said fans were “getting older and consuming less and starting to fall over”. Traditional “builder’s tea” drinkers were “not into experimenting and trying new products”...

I wasn't sure where to post this, but it is reported as a case of younger customers turning away from traditional builder's tea towards coffee and "fashionable" teas. Well, at least there are still a few of us old "traditional tea drinkers" left!

>18 John5918: I promise to not fall over anytime soon!

>18 John5918: I'm doing my bit. I converted at 30-ish co-worker to black tea. My other 30-ish co-worker was already on board without my help. :=)

Oh, my daughter, now 40, also drinks pots of black tea all day long. She switched several years ago from a Pepsi habit and feels much better for it.

This thirtysomething drinks almost exclusively black tea!

>18 John5918:

I think tea drinking is somewhat down but the traditional brands Brooke Bond and PG Tips have also lost market share to Yorkshire Tea and various fairtrade teas like Clipper who have bucked the market trend.

My friends (late 50s to early 70s) are about evenly split between nothing but fruity tisanes or highly sweetened chais (both only in bags!) (Shaking head, despairingly....)

There's serious tea and then there's recreational tea. I enjoy both, but foofy tea with candy pieces or fruity bits can't take the place of PG Tips or Ty-Phoo Gold first thing in the morning.

I teach fifth and sixth graders at my church and the week before Christmas is Tea Party day. I always bring some Lapsang Souchong for the boys and dare them to drink it. Least year, one of my sixth graders liked "that bacon tea" so much he asked if he could take the rest of it home. At least I've got one of them trained properly!