Put the Kettle On

How do you take your tea? Tea leaves or teabag? Milk or sugar, weak or strong? Mug or fine bone china? Tea fanatic Juanita Browne investigates our tea habits and the rules, the warmth, the comfort and the craic in every brew across Ireland. She discovers tea is more than a simple drink, meeting characters such as tea addicts, teabag haters, tea connoisseurs, a teapot collector, a 'Teaseach' and the makers of a 'teabag tablecloth'. We are reminded of tea rationing during the war, tea drunk from bottles in the hayfield and sweet billycans on the bog. We hear about tea after childbirth, football matches and card games, tea at the office canteen, hospitals and wakes. As an Irish emigrant pours a cup of tea in Melbourne, someone is pouring tea into a china cup in Dublin on a day out shopping, just as tea is being served to someone in distress in Pieta House. These parallel worlds are reflected in these pages with tea always in the background. Contributors include broadcaster Tom Dunne, author Cathy Kelly, football manager Roddy Collins, actress Mary McEvoy and farmers Podge and Rodge.