I HATE tea. I really wish that I could like it and I have tried really hard over the years to find a kind of tea that I could stomach. Common or garden tea, green tea, herbal tea, fruit tea, Earl Grey and many moons ago Lapsang Sou -whatever it is. The trouble is they all taste of tea and I even dislike the smell of it. My husband feels exactly the same about it, we are strictly black coffee people – no sugar.

I wish I loved it and it’s really strange to me that I don’t because both my parents were tea addicts as were my husband’s parents. The thing is that I love everything to do with tea, which is why I’ve persevered with it over the years. It’s all so very British and twee, as are all the accessories that go with tea making.

Teapots and military crested ware

Tea cosies and accessories

As you can see, I have quite a collection of lovely teapots, tea cosies and caddies which I inherited from a great aunt. Tea seems to have got the older generation through desperate times in their lives. The first action in any disaster seemed to be to put the kettle on, I think the process and ritual of tea-making must have had a great calming effect on people’s nerves.

My father-in-law was in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Regiment during WW2. He was mobilised in 1939 and was in it for the whole duration of the war. He was one of the poor souls who had to wait on the beach at Dunkirk to be evacuated, whilst being bombed and shot at by the Luftwaffe, and he said that the first thing that they did whenever they pitched up somewhere new was to get the tea brewing. After that things didn’t seem so bad.

So you can see why I feel that I’m missing out on something here. Strangely, both our ‘boys’ are keen tea drinkers, quaffing quantities of the stuff in the ordinary and green varieties.

If anyone can advise me on obscure tea types which might tempt me, I’d be grateful. I’m still willing to try and my pinky finger is just ready to tweek to a jaunty angle whilst drinking from a bone china cup (hand-painted of course)!