In our family, we love all hot beverages, not just tea, although tea is admittedly a mainstay for us. Making tea for me becomes a conundrum for my husband and daughters, they need to check if I want "normal tea" or another type of tea, because I might be feeling like some ginger tea or Rooibos or the myriad of other tea flavours available.
When we grew up, there were just two types of tea: Tanganda tea, produced in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe, a very beautiful mountainous region, or Rooibos tea, a herbal tea which came from South Africa and was more expensive to acquire, thus not always available. So mostly we drank plain old tea, which was always good.
In recent years, tea has had a makeover, and tea shops with specialty teas have sprung all over Joburg. Not just that, any supermarket attests to the rise of tea as a viable hot beverage that compares well with coffee. Shelves burgeon with all types of tea, ranging from the standard English-style tea like Five Roses, to herbal teas like Rooibos. I think what makes it so compelling is that it pairs so well with any flavour, mild or strong, ranging from ginger to strawberries, as compared to coffee, which has a particular flavour that marries well with similar rich flavours like vanilla.
When we were growing up, I became the obligatory tea-maker and was called upon at all hours to make tea, which, as you can imagine, was not exactly the height of pleasure to me, but I did it anyway because I was basically an obedient slave. However, I had to make it just right: my mother loved her tea very strong and if what I made did not pass muster, she would throw it out and tell me to make another, saying "This tea tastes like dirty dishwater". My mother is gone now, but memories of her remain close to my heart, and don't anyone dare give me a cup of dirty dishwater...
The photo below of Honde Valley in Zimbabwe, the home of Tanganda Tea, is courtesy of www.buckhambirding.co.za:
