Four different times, by at least two different authors, I've run across this choice of tea offered in English mystery novels. It seems to be an upper class choice. If I find myself is an English mystery novel, what am I being offered, and how do I choose? Toci
If I found myself in an English mystery novel, I'd worry about getting killed. Even tea would be ... secondary.
/Lew
A true Englishman will always choose Empire-produced Indian tea over Chinese.
Probably an undistinguished Assam and a heavier China Black blend. I would tend to ask for the China tea, weak with no cream please.
I am told that the current Prince of Wales blends are more or less close to the common British China-tea blends of a century ago. Although China teas were a small player in the market by then, there were still people drinking them.
--scott
Stay away from the butler and anyone involved in cooking or photography and you'll be okay.
--scott
Would tea preparation count as cooking for our current purposes? Remember, the English are prone to long steeps.
/Lew
Well, in one case the tea was offered by the person who turned out to be the murderess. She wasn't a poisoner, however. All of the tea was offered to the detective or the inspector or the sergeant, so they weren't in much danger, at least at the end. Toci
I love undistinguished Assams, but only in the morning. I guess I'd brave the Chinese in the afternoon. Of course without adulterants: "blend" scares me enough. Toci
With sodium cyanide, if Agatha Christie is to be believed.
--scott
It really depends on the moment, don't you think?
If you are on the run, a cup of Guyu Hong is an excellent company to calm and help focus; if you are on the prowl through the dark night, nothing may be better to keep you alert than a brisk cup of Praadesh Gold CTC; but if it is later nights in the library looking up clues, the Upanishad Spring Thunder is a great friend to keep you alert. A fantastic morning pick-me-up after late night sleuthing is the Yunyao Qingzhen; and to celebrate the bulter's the killer, and a mystery solved, try the Gold Medal Fenghuang Zicha...
Then again, this being in the novel, nothing is really what it seems...
:")
Good one. I'd still be looking for the Chinese compounds.
Jim
snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:
"Here's your arsenic dear. And your weed-killer biscuit. I've throttled your parakeet. I've spat in the vases. I've put cheese in the mouseholes. Here's your....nice tea, dear."
-Dylan Thomas (who was a Brit, if not an Englishman)
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