An article by Christopher Hitchens on tea-making has attracted some attention, with the writer's customary reference to Eric Blair, aka George Orwell, novelist and police informer.
I bet neither Hitchens nor Orwell had the Wolf Cub's second star, which I won in an unhappy time in Lord Baden-Powell's militaristic organisation. To earn this, I had inter alia to make a pot of tea, which I did under the stern eye of Mrs Langford, who 'did' for my mother in the afternoons. Mrs L 'signed off' my effort, as we didn't say in the early 1960s, though I don't remember her actually drinking it. But I do remember the three commandments of the British tea ceremony:
- Take pot to kettle
- Warm pot
- Use a teaspoon of tea per person, and one for the pot
The Wolf Cubs wisely stayed away from the milk-in-first/afterwards controversy, on which Lord B-P left no instructions.
