Tea And Teapots

My Doctors have been nagging me about coffee lately. It isn't enough that I haven't had a drink of alcohol in almost twenty-three years and that I quit smoking three years ago this August, no, they are still complaining.

Oddly, they say I can get my caffeine from tea, though. So I've been experimenting with tea. Green tea beminds me of that time I faceplanted from a dead run into thick grass (don't ask) and ended up with a mouthful of grass and dirt.

I do like the black tea blends, though. I've been drinking plain ol' Lipton's as well as some Irish Breakfast, and English Teatime from Twinings and Bigelow's English Breakfast. I bought some Earl Gray tea, I'm not very excited about that. Now I've always drunk my coffee black, no sugar but it seems I like tea with a little milk and sugar. Note: Earl Gray tea is awful with milk, the tea is flavored with Bergamot, some kind of citrus fruit I'd never heard of. Anyhow, milk is awful with that.

I knew nothing about tea. My family drank coffee right up until it was time for beer. So I'm studying tea a little bit. It seems the Irish drink their tea stronger than most other folks, the saying is "thick enough that a mouse can walk across" while the Brits like it a little milder. Perhaps because of a lifetime of strong coffee I prefer the Irish way.

So, next payday I'm investing in a teapot. I know nothing about those either. The little bit of internet sleuthing I've done says that a teapot works better than making it in the microwave in a measuring cup or in the Mr. Coffee. Anybody know anything about teapots? From what I've read there is a teapot called the Brown Betty, made of some special clay found only in Cornwall. Cornwall is someplace on the British part of the world but that's about all I know. They have oppressed nations over on that side of the pond that are smaller than a lot of Texas counties. That Brown Betty teapot is supposed to make the best tea, dunno why, persactly. They are fairly inexpensive.

At any rate I can drink all the tea I want and still sleep and it doesn't make me shake as bad as the coffee. So I'm going to mess around with that, some. A Brit that hangs out in a Cowboy Action website tells me that the favorite tea in Britain is Tetley. They sell that in Krogers.

So, anybody know anything about tea, teapots or, as fat as I'm getting, artificial sweetener? What will happen to me if I don't stick my pinkie finger out while drinking? And will mobs of upper crust types form if I keep using my mugs and not dainty little cups? I hope I won't have to sit with my shotgun in my lap, eh, the upper crust can't find their way to Lake Tawakoni. If they could the dust would keep them off our roads.

Update: I finally decided to Google where those Brown Betty teapots are made, a place called Staffordshire in a town called Stoke on Trent. This has nothing to do with Cornwall. The maps I've looked at don't show a scale of miles but Staffordshire is just a little west of the middle of the island, Cornwall is a big peninsula at the extreme southwest of the island. Well, big for over there.