Idaho Jane - there have been teas for £7.50 per head suggested - it can be done affordably.

The OP has come on here specifically to research costs and venues before making a decission - I don't see why she should attract critiscism for that.

I just picked this up at the end after reading the first part a few days ago. Tea for $305? Sell the kids. Disown them. Take the money out of their allowance.

But now I am seeing things about rolling boils and tea-making incompetence in various countries. Who could possibly care? Who wants to drink tea anyway? Shouldn't tea addicts report for treatment somewhere if they find tea to be such a drug?

Blimey - first we have people telling us football isn't important, and now tea doesn't matter either, apparently.

I think someone's trying to start a riot!

I don't know howe I'm going to break this to the British readers - but there are other varieties of Jaffa Cake sold to Johny Foreigner.

Specifically they make a blackcurrant jaffa cake and an apple and blackberry jaffa cake.

The horror! The horror!

Blackberry and apple is a hideous combination - they're welcome to 'em!

I haven't had a Jaffa cake in ages. I'd love one.

I can't bear boiling water for tea in a saucepan. I always feel like I'm camping.

Blimey - first we have people telling us football isn't important, and now tea doesn't matter either, apparently. >>>>>

Ignore them. They know not what they do.

Kerouac, you're free to drink something else, but surely you can agree that if you're going to have a cup of tea you want a real cup of tea and not repulsive dishwater? Do you drink coffee? If you went somewhere and found they routinely used the grounds twice, wouldn't you be a bit peeved? Or if all their Coke was oddly grape-flavored? You'd be saying "this isn't real Coke". It's the same thing. Tea: there's a right way and a wrong way. And boiling water is hardly an esoteric procedure.

The blackcurrant Jaffa cake isn't as horrible as the regular "orange" ones. Also, these different flavors are British, not foreign. We can only get the regular ones at our local import shop. You can't blame us.

I remember when the rubbery orange thing in the middle nearly covered the entire bisquit/cake. Sadly, it's much smaller these days.

My name is EnglishOne and Im a tea addict.

There, Ive confessed!

;-)

Stop talking about jaffa cakes now PLEASE, I havent got any in the house at the mo.... and Im sorry but I LIKE the sound of the other flavours!! shock horror.

Oh yes, and regarding the 'who cares about tea, who drinks it anyway? comment' - I have been on a tour in Canada with English Speakers and we had US Citizens with us. All they seemed concerned about was where to get a good cup of coffee, when our comfort stops were over, it was 'oh that was a bad place for coffee' etc etc..... SOOO we are as finicky about tea as you are about coffee. Does that make it clearer to understand? ;-) I usually take my own teabags when I travel as the hotel ones just are not up to scratch. Usually too weak.

Too much, tea is tea and coffee is coffee. Both are drugs...stimulants, and for now legal. The US system is simple, microwave!
What happened to the Finnish salt bit? The egg shell for coffee? Caffeine is the basis of the custom. I like ground expresso beans, as black as they come. Sometimes I can't get a spoon into the cup!

You can't microwave tea or coffee. You can reheat it there, I suppose, but you can't make it.

I guess that my problem is that I have no interest in hot beverages. I can drink 10 espressos and go to bed and sleep immediately -- caffeine apparently does not affect me. And coffee tastes horrible anyway. As for tea, it kind of tastes like furniture cleaner or something. Both of those beverages become completely something else if sugar and/or milk are used, and in that case, who cares how it was brewed? It's like mixing whiskey and cola -- if the whiskey was any good, there is no way of knowing anymore if you pour cola into it. Hot chocolate is just an inferior version of cold chocolate. As a warm-blooded creature, I certainly do not need to heat myself additionally, but I do sometimes need a cool beverage when I am overheated.

I guess I kind of feel sorry for people who need tea or coffee to start the day. I can jump out of bed as though mounted on springs at 5 or 6 am -- it is unbearable when I have to wait for somebody else to get their fix.

I do drink coffee, however -- it is still the cheapest way to get a seat for hours in a Parisian café.

Even a non-tea-drinker can tell the difference between a properly brewed cup and a crap one, even if there is milk and a tiny bit of sugar in it. Unless you have no palate at all.

You could have a very nice tea at the following

Fortnum & Mason
The Wolseley both on Piccadilly
If you like a lovely room at a nice art gallery - even if you don't want to see the gallery - go to the Wallace Collection and have tea in the courtyard there (close to Selfridges)
All hotels will be ridiculously expensive and not worth it!
I am a Londoner - I know!

Ha ha ha ha I'll say it again! $30 to $60 USD for 10 or 11 year old kid to drink a cup of TEA! I don't care how properly brewed it is. LOL. We are not poor but not rich either but... come on! I guess maybe if they drink enough properly brewed English tea they too can be as british as Madonna! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Fourteen "ha"s makes you sound a little nutty, Jaane. And you know, they're not paying for the tea; they're paying for the Empire.

I've had some pretty bad tea in a few London hotels (at breakfast). Downright stewed it was.....

hi,

I don't understand the remarks that americans don't have kettles- my suggestion was specifically aimed at the OP in her hotel, where she will undoubtedly have a kettle and some tea-bags.

audere - you need to yearn for a teasmaid no longer. the aforementioned swan/goblin web-site can supply a new one. I thought that £60 was a lot for a new one [though cheaper than afternoon tea in london, as it turns out] so when our old goblin teasmaid gave up the ghost, after 15+ years of sterling service i looked through the small ads in iour local paper [the wonderfully named "West Briton", complete with reports of the local WI and lists of mourners at funerals] and bought a 2nd hand one of £10. a morning cuppa without leaving the warmth of the bed-clothes may be yours!

regards, ann