P.D. James and the mystery of the missing tea

2008-07-14T08:01:55+00:00

Now, being of sound mind, I like a good Dalgliesh novel. P.D. James writes lucid prose, human characters and an intriguing mystery to boot; that’s not getting into her skills with suspense. However, in listening to my current audiobook, Original Sin, I have realized something chilling.

Everyone drinks coffee. Every suspect or interviewee who offers anything offers coffee; the sister of the victim feels the need for coffee. Even in the murder-plagued publishing company’s ‘tea room’ presided over by the tea lady we find coffee, coffee grounds, people kicking in weekly for coffee. This can’t be simple find-replace regionalization (my mother owns the British versions of the Harry Potter books, so I do realize it happens), because the French suspect and his Anglicized daughter, independently, bring coffee to the police in cafetières. Somehow I doubt P.D. originally wrote théière and expected us to understand!

Casting my mind back, I remember some cups of coffee being plot points in earlier P.D. James novels. But try as I might, I cannot recall seeing a single character drink a cup of tea in one of her books. Does P.D. James hate tea?

As Xander once said on this very subject, “You’re destroying a perfectly good cultural stereotype.”

Update, July 19, 2008: She’s messing with me. Now I’m listening to A Certain Justice and tea has been made, been made fresh, and offered to the bereaved in its capacity as the British panacea. She saw me post this and went back in time to 1997 and changed all the coffees to teas in this novel. Really.

The problem with tea

2006-11-09T22:59:53+00:00

I am addicted to tea. This I know. I have this idea that, just perhaps, taking down my canisters of tea one after another just to sniff their contents and enjoy the secure and comfortable way the tins close is not normal.

But as addictions go, the costs are easy to control, and it actually benefits my health, so I refuse to give it up. The problem is that it grows. I must try new kinds of tea, and I am almost always unwilling to part with an old kind of tea. I prefer to add to my repertoire rather than maintain it at any given size. Recently I’ve ordered a few ‘Sip by Sip samplers’ from Republic of Tea, and picked up some other samples from the bulk tea section at New Seasons. This gives me access to more varieties than my usual habit of going to my favorite tea shop and smelling tins until I like something. Also, it doesn’t require me and my wallet to go to my favorite tea shop.

The problem? As hinted above, once I have any sort of tea or tisane in my house that I like even a bit, it’s hard to imagine NOT being able to brew that particular tea or tisane on demand. I already more or less monopolize two cupboards with tea stuff. How much more can the kitchen hold?

Posts tagged with "tea" - Faerye Net

P.D. James and the mystery of the missing tea

The problem with tea