My coup of tea.
My coup of tea was an old little glass half-filled with lukewarm tea, tons of sugar and nana leaves. Holding it by its knob, sipping slowly and eating a biscuit or two or three.
Grandma used to give me a sugar cube without my father seeing it. He would have been really mad if he knew.
Sugar cubes. Remember those? Little white cubes of concentrated sugar. Comes in huge packs and kept on a high shelf away from young children. Such as I.
I never quite got the idea behind it. What's the deal? Everyone knows how to use a spoon, why would you want to take sugar and form cubes out of it? Is it just because it looks cooler? Does it have any other use besides being dropped into a cup of tea?
My cup of tea was a big white coup of extremely hot green tea, sometimes flavored but sometimes just plain green tea. Near the newspaper or a book on a cool afternoon.
My cup of tea became a green, 0.75 liters canteen, filled with boiling water and some shitty tea. Sometimes, even, some sugar. It was the best tea I have ever drank and nothing will ever compare to that. It was delicious. Standing on a stupid guarding station in the middle of a blank dessert, 20 kilograms on my back, -7 degrees around, nothing was better than swallowing a canteen full of hot sweet tea.
Some days were so crazed, we didn't have time to think at all. Waking up before the sunrise, we had to dress up and wash our teeth in the dark. In 5 minutes. I cannot even count the number of times I washed my teeth or shaved my face using a canteen of tea that got ice cold during the night. There was even one man who installed his eye lens using cold orange juice from yesterday.
We knew it was damn funny and idiotic, but we didn't have time so no matter.
My cup of tea as of this moment is a tiny polystyrene cup with some water and a teapot drawn together.
The value of tea says nothing.
I don't know how someone can tell if something is my cup of tea or not. I'd like to think I can judge everything individually, outside of its context.
Unless it's got eggplants. I hate those goddamn eggplants.
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