Tea Up

In a great burst of sunshine, John Lewis has announced that it is bringing back the sorely missed Teasmade to their shelves.

The Teasmade is one of those things which mark the cultural fault lines between the United States and Great Britain. I regard the lack of the Teasmade in the US as a sign that America has yet to become a truly civilised nation. My American-born wife regards my opinion as proof that I'm mad. I contend that this is only because she doesn't drink tea. The hardest thing that I've had to adjust to while living in the States is not having my trusty automatic servant sitting on my bedside table with the reservoir filled with water ready to squirt boiling into the little square teapot with its waiting bag of Tetley's finest.

What, I ask you, is better than sleeping in the secure knowledge that you don't have to struggle blearily out of bed and into the kitchen to hunt down the kettle only to discover a half hour later that you forgot to turn the burner on or that the teabag in the pot is, in fact, the soggy one from the day before? Making tea before you've had your tea is far too complicated.

No, far better to be gently awoken by the whooshing and gurgling of the Teasmade minutes before its somewhat redundant alarm clock is set to go off and roll over to find a fresh pot of tea within easy reach, as is the familiar mug and the little pitcher of milk in its now-melted bowl of ice chips set out the night before; all waiting to come together in a welcoming reassurance that the day to come will not be quite so horrible after all.

Now that is civilised.