Thursday September 04, 2008 at 10:17

Photo

I know people say, with regard to addiction, that “cutting down” doesn’t work. But over the last few months I have gradually reduced the amount of sugar I take in my tea from two to a quarter of one spoon. This week I’m leaving it out entirely and it feels like a very natural progression. I’d like to say this was done for reasons of personal health or the like, but mainly it was as a result of reading George Orwell’s charming essay on tea. I felt that after finding myself strongly in agreement with him on ten of the eleven points made, I owed it to tea to give the last one a shot. (It’s getting increasingly difficult to buy regular leaf-tea here. Teabags everywhere. I don’t want tealeaves to become a niche product. It will make it expensive.)

I know people say, with regard to addiction, that “cutting down” doesn’t work. But over the last few months I have gradually reduced the amount of sugar I take in my tea from two to a quarter of one spoon. This week I’m leaving it out entirely and it feels like a very natural progression.

I’d like to say this was done for reasons of personal health or the like, but mainly it was as a result of reading George Orwell’s charming essay on tea. I felt that after finding myself strongly in agreement with him on ten of the eleven points made, I owed it to tea to give the last one a shot.

(It’s getting increasingly difficult to buy regular leaf-tea here. Teabags everywhere. I don’t want tealeaves to become a niche product. It will make it expensive.)