Perfect English Tea

April has been a month to think about taxes and also about tea.  Not just because April 23 is St George’s Day, St George being the patron saint of England.  We read that now is a time to think about Cricket, tea dances, and fish’n’chips, particularly in London’s East End.  Apparently there is no doubting Tower Hamlets’ ‘Englishness’ as the perfect place to head for a nice cuppa and a rousing chorus of Jerusalem if you are in London.

On the other hand, in the USA April has seen Tea Party Protests on Tax Day, April 15.

“This isn’t about Democrats. This isn’t about Republicans. This isn’t about Libertarians, Green parties. This is Americans joining together no matter who you are, what you are. We’re fighting for our freedoms,” said Israel Lakey of Mount Cobb.  Like the tea party in Scranton, more than 750 similar events were held across the country.

The protests were reminiscent of the famous Boston Tea Party when,in 1773, colonists dumped tea in the Boston Harbor, rallying against the British government’s Tea Act.  “In history, the Boston Tea Party, taxation without representation. Which I truly feel we don’t have representation for the common man in Washington D.C. So today is the perfect day, being that it’s tax day,” Lakey added.

If you’re not into protesting but just want to relax with a nice English cuppa, then it may be that you live close enough to one of these delightful places that serves a traditional English afternoon tea, perhaps even with hot scones and Devon clotted cream.

• Broad House Hotel, Wroxham, Norfolk, UK
• Bettys Café Tea Rooms, York, UK
• Some Grand Hotels in London – The Ritz, The Berkeley, Claridge’s, The Dorchester Hotel and The Savoy Hotel
• Other fine restaurants in London for Afternoon tea
• High tea restaurants in Victoria, BC
• Yorkshire Tea Shoppe,  Fort Langley, BC

Failing that you can always order teas online and make your own cuppa.  If you are a traditionalist, then you will be using loose leaf teas and a brown earthenware teapot.  That will probably be black tea for the traditional English cup of tea, but even that gives you a wide variety of choices.  Some swear by the comforting rituals of afternoon tea, but you will find that even a simple cuppa made with a tea-bag is a refreshing break.  .. and now back to the taxes, since in Canada we have till April 30.

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