Tea and Memories

What Proust's madeleine did for him, hot tea does for me.  Every cup transports me back to childhood.  In those days I only wanted to drink tea when I was home sick from school.  With a nurse for a mother, those sick-at-home days did not come often.  The tea was steaming hot and fragrant with oranges and spices I could not identify.  Back then I liked my tea super-sweet.  After a hot cup or two, I always felt better--not well enough to go to school--but warm and satisfied.

The tea ritual of childhood, to the extent there was one, was very different from the one I observe now.  Back then, all my mother or grandmother made tea.  All I had to do was add sugar, stir, and drink it.   Even on days when I had strep throat or a bad cold, tea made everything better.  To sip tea while wearing my jammies and reading a book was the ultimate in way to spend a day off from school. 

Now,  I must make my own tea.  Usually  I just fill the kettle and make  one cup.  On occasion, I make a whole pot for myself and go through the steps of warming the pot with hot water and using loose-leaf tea.  I have no tea cozy, but I can improvise one from a large dish towel.  The wrapped pot will stay hot for a good 45 minutes or more.  I drink a variety of teas now, mostly decaffeinated or herbal teas, but the orange spiced tea of childhood sick days was for many years the only tea I would drink.  I still keep some on hand.   Now, no matter what tea I drink or how I prepare it, I go back to those relaxed and free times of decades past, if only for a few minutes.