The Best Cup of Tea
Wine is surly the national drink of France, who drink more wine than water. And for the English and Irish people, that honour must belong to the English style red tea. I had spent many years in Dublin as an overseas student, and had picked up their habit of having tea every day. Both the English and Irish people make their tea more or less the same way – with boiling hot water, and served with fresh milk and sugar. I must say that it is really great to have a nice cup of hot tea right after finishing battling with the cold wind or chilly rain which appear in the 300 out of the 365 days in a year. Not particularly crazy about it, I just took it as the right kind of drink in the right kind of environment.
I seldom have English tea after I moved back to Hong Kong. It is rather warm here in Hong Kong. Most people prefer cooling drinks like the green tea and ice lemon tea, and I am no exception. We do have Hong Kong style milk tea, but my Irish and English friends refused to accept that as a proper cup of tea, since it is made rather strong with blend of different types of tea leaves, condensed milk is used instead of the creamy fresh one, and is pre-mixed with the tea before it is delivered to your table. I am not surprised by their complains of not being able to find a proper cup of English tea even in the famous restaurants in town. In case if anyone is really craving for the traditional English tea, they do serve the proper kind in many large hotels, but I would prefer making my own at home – they do sell fresh milk and tea bags in the supermarkets.
However, the best cup of English tea I have had so far came from a small local café in the seaside suburb of the northern Japanese town of Wakkanai in Hokkaido. It was raining, windy, cold, with a temperature of 6ºC, and I was freezing. I took refuge in this café to escape the bad weather. As soon as I had spotted “Earl Grey Tea” from the menu, I decided to order one, curious about how a local Japanese café would serve the English tea. A pot of hot tea was delivered to the table with lemon and fresh milk, and I was really satisfied with that, taking the first cup with lemon, and the second one with milk. That was the best cups of English tea I had ever had.
There is an old Chinese saying, one may not appreciate the beauty of a flower when there are plenty of pretty ones blooming around, but would treasure dearly a gift of firewood from a friend delivered in a cold snowy winter day. Surely that cup of tea from the Japanese café would not be the best in the world, but to me it was the best since it came at the right time when I needed one badly.
最好的那杯茶
葡萄酒號稱為法國人的「國飲」，皆因他們飲酒比飲水還要多；對於英國和愛爾蘭人來說，能獲此榮銜的，非英式紅茶莫屬。我曾在都柏林留學多年，也沾上了他們飲茶的日常習慣。英國和愛爾蘭人泡紅茶的方式大同小異，都是用大熱開水沖泡，上茶時自行加入牛奶及糖，也就是我們說的英式奶茶。我得承認，當每日在戶外與寒風冷雨搏鬥完之後，一杯滾燙的奶茶在手，是何等美妙的賞心樂事；而在當地一年中有三分二的日子，寒風冷雨是正常不過的現象。自己並非對奶茶特別瘋狂，只是在這樣的環境飲適當的飲料而已。
回到香港後，很少飲英式奶茶，香港天氣炎熱，大部份人都愛綠茶或冰凍檸檬茶一類清熱解暑的飲品，我也不例外。港式奶茶頗為流行，但我的英國和愛爾蘭朋友，都不認為這是正統的紅茶，皆因由多種不同茶葉沖泡而成的港式奶茶，茶味十分濃郁，棄鮮奶而採用濃縮淡奶，而且上茶前奶與茶早已混和，而非由飲用者按自己喜好調配。經常聽到他們的投訴，抱怨甚至在很多城中的高級餐廳，都沒有正統的英式紅茶供應，這個我完全理解。其實如果真的是「茶癮」難耐，在很多大型酒店的餐廳，倒是有供應的，但我倒寧願自己在家中泡製。鮮奶和茶包，一般的超級市場都可以買得到啊。
說起來大家或許不相信，到現時為止我最享受的那杯紅茶，竟然是來自日本北海道稚內市郊海邊的一間小茶室。那是一個氣溫只有攝氏六度的下午，寒風夾帶著冷雨，壞天氣把我冷得發抖的身軀驅趕進這家冷清的小店。當我看到餐牌上寫著「伯爵紅茶」，就毫不猶疑地叫了一客，有點好奇一間日本的本地茶室到底如何泡製英式紅茶。一壺滾燙的紅茶送到跟前，另附上一小碟鮮檸檬片和一小勺鮮牛奶，果然是正統，甚感滿意之餘，先來一杯鮮檸檬伯爵紅茶，再來一杯英式奶茶。這就是我最享受的那杯紅茶。
中國人有這樣的講法：錦上添花，很多人都不覺稀罕，雪中送炭，才令人倍感珍貴。日本小茶室的那杯紅茶，當然不會是世界上最好的，但對我來說，卻是最回味的，只因它的出現，正是我最需要的時候。
