09 Feb 10 A Cup Of Tea

It struck me as amusing when I stopped by Starbucks just now.

Now, as many of you know, I work from home a lot, and when I’m out I tend to take a mug of coffee with me from home.

There are a few coffee shops around town that I’ll use, if I have some work to do, but Starbucks isn’t usually one of them, as they don’t have the free wi-fi that the others do, and being honest, I prefer the coffee in the local independents.

So, today was my first visit to a Starbucks in some months. Also I didn’t feel like coffee, I wanted a cup of tea.

As an Englishman I wanted it the English way. Hot, with a little milk. (I gave up sugar many years ago).

I’ve gotten used to the many variations on a cup of coffee over the years, although I almost always have regular coffee, with milk or cream. $4 meals in a mug don’t appeal to me very much. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise really to find the same goes for tea at Starbucks. Now, this is not a criticism; it’s good to have choice.

I just couldn’t help but smile to myself, because back in England, I could walk into just about any café and ask for a cup of tea, and get just what I want without any further questions. Of course, if I did ask for green tea, or Orange Pekoe in the local Greasy Spoon, I’d probably be given a blank puzzled look, or told they didn’t do that ‘fancy stuff’

Still, just for a moment, while I stood at the Starbucks counter, and looked at the choices, I remembered simpler times in a land far away.