Posted by Peter H on August 28, 2003 at 18:38:08 from 81.131.212.154 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: milk in tea, and drinking lake water posted by Ed Kiser on August 28, 2003 at 16:39:56:
I think this may be a long thread, Ed! I will nip in first and say that drinking tea without milk is for me not a question of 'roughing it' or being 'uncivilised' - it just tastes awful. That is, I think, because of the sour tannin taste. I am talking here about 'black tea' ie Ceylon and the like. Green teas should be drunk without milk as they have a much more fragrant taste which doesn't need softening. No doubt the Swallows were so thrilled to be where they were that the sour taste didn't matter.
Putting lake water into very hot tea was probably perfectly OK when AR was writing. I have drunk from a river before now, and frequently from becks, provided they are high up enough not to have a dead sheep in them just out of sight upstream. To be safe, you should walk downstream for 50 yards or so checking for corpses and then drink. But you don't always bother - it adds a little extra thrill to fell-walking.