A high consumption of tea has been a feature of English daily life for a couple of hundred years - but is now not so common, nor such a central feature, as it once was.
Except in my house...
The Inklings - that Thursday late-evening writing group of such importance to CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien - was characterized by the consumption of tea; as is evident in the histories of its deliberations.
Another Inklings member Charles Williams stated that, if compelled to choose only one beverage, tea would be his choice; since it had the status of a necessity in his creative life, rather than the pleasant luxuries of beer or wine.
Barbara Pym's novels from the middle 20th century are similarly permeated by tea drinking; at home, in afternoon parties, and punctuating all forms of social event - whether Parish Councils, or Anthropological lectures.
Indeed, one of her recurrent minor characters, Esther Clovis, is represented as having been at the centre of a dispute over tea that led to her leaving one learned society for another - it seems she made the tea using hot water from the tap instead of boiled water - a heinous crime...
Of course, coffee has, especially over the past forty years, grown to displace tea and dominate the consumption of hot drinks in England as elsewhere - especially in public meeting places. My aunt and uncle who would punctuate an afternoon shopping trip to the city (Newcastle) with At Least two cups of tea, is a thing of the past - anyway café coffee is currently far too expensive for that kind of high frequency consumption.
Nonetheless, my wife and I do our best to continue the tradition (albeit modified to suit our needs); with a chronic regime of At Least four pint mugs of weak, Earl Grey, tea with milk - per day.
