Ordering Tea in France

As much as I love learning about new cultures and languages, and I really do, I’ve started to notice that there are some Englishisms that I can’t quite drop. I’ll happily adopt the daily visits to the Boulangerie for a baguette, I’ll even speed up when the traffic lights go orange rather than slow down, but when it comes to tea, I remain a patriot. However, sticking to my tea-drinking habits is not as easy in France as you might expect. Here are a few reasons why…

They hate milk. French people hate milk. It might be a teeny generalisation, but UHT milk is pretty much all you can get in their supermarkets. Something doesn’t seem right for me when the milk is kept in the larder and not in the fridge and it doesn’t go off for months… it’s unnerving.

They give me funny looks when I ask for milk. Many a waitress or colleague have raised their eyebrows upon my request for milk with my tea. ‘I’ve never heard of that before’ responded one waitress earlier this week, ‘I’ll ask the chef’. Even if they do finally understand the concept of milky tea, it is often brought to the table hot and foamy. That’s for coffee, duh.

They like funny flavours. The most common appears to be Darjeeling, but Earl Grey is a popular choice as well. If I’m going to forgo French culture, I’m going to do it right. English Breakfast only please.

They prefer coffee anyway. I think my strive for a tea taste of home is fairly fruitless, with various occasions of being brought a tea bag with a cup of milk (no water), hot milk on its own (with no tea)and often a cup so full there is no space for milk in it, perhaps it is time to age a few years and start drinking Espresso. I’m all for embracing the culture, but I might just keep a stash of Tetley’s in the back of the cupboard for the next time something exciting happens in the royal family and I feel nostalgic for home.