Hot Beverages in Europe

Amsterdam and Belgium had great coffee.  Though it was nearly always served in a small cup, the pot or decanter was always for refills.  They boldly provided cream for the coffee, not milk and they also provided sugar cubes with both raw and refined sugar.

My first experience with English coffee was bland at best and it got worse and finally I stopped drinking coffee after we got a to-go coffee where they poured the coffee grounds into the water and where you put your lips to drink was a screen that screened out the the grounds. It was awful coffee. Yes, there are Starbucks all over the UK, but I won't drink that formulaic crap.

Being one who never drinks free coffee and especially free hotel coffee no matter where I stay because it is always a disappointment. I have learned that it is pretty hard to screw up tea, except for the bags of tea that they put in your take-out Chinese food.  All I can think is that they are keeping the good stuff for themselves.

I started getting a pot of tea with every breakfast.  I even got a cuppa from a teashop that offered individual cups of any of the hundreds of verities they had in the shop.  I got Lapsang Souchung and had a joyful time drinking tea while waiting on the steps of York Minster for the doors to open so we could experience Evensong.

My life with tea was going along nicely until someone asked if I had tried the tea that was offered in the room of the hotel we were staying in.  This person was from England and he said it was the strongest tea he had ever had.  I tried it and it was a whole other level of tea.  It was the equivalent of comparing 2% beer with Everclear.  Since then I've procured 100 bags of this nectar. It is Taylor's Yorkshire Tea.  Holy crap, is it ever good.

I will leave you here as I sip, but I will share three of their commercials in the links below.
Enjoy!

Every Thing Stops forTea
Blessed are the Tea Makers
Tea Song