Tea: the Candi’s Dog guide

Candi’s Dog do like a nice cup of tea*. When Stephen first met Matthew and Daniel, however, he was not a tea drinker, living a clean life free of mind altering substances. The others however, urged him to try it out, promising that it would expand his mind and open up new musical possibilities. The fact that tea was ever present at rehearsals and that all the cool kids seemed to be drinking it probably made it inevitable that Stephen would give in to peer pressure and try it, and so he did. For Matthew and Daniel, a mug of tea was all they needed, maybe biscuits too if they were partying hard. Stephen’s habit quickly got out of control and before long he had moved on to Earl Grey, Darjeeling and Masala Chai, tea in the morning tea for elevenses tea with lunch afternoon tea with scones tea for supper tea to get up tea to come down tea to go on stage. Things got so bad he even tried coffee once, but here reality kicked in and he has been a moderate user of tea ever since.

For Candi’s Dog then the words they both love and hate to hear are “Would you like a cup of tea?” They answer to this is usually a cautious yes; cautious because the memories of the atrocities in a cup the chaps have been presented with over the years are still raw. So in the interests of avoiding this in the future we present the Candi’s Dog guide to making tea. Firstly we should point out to any readers outside the UK** that a cup of warm water that was boiled a couple of minutes ago with a paper wrapped teabag in a saucer on the side is totally unacceptable. Other brands, besides Liptons, are also available. Also if you are making coffee at the same time, use a different spoon to stir the tea and coffee. The reason, after all, we do not drink coffee is that we do not like the taste of coffee.

1. Get some fresh water – From the tap is fine. If there is water left in the kettle throw it out.
2. If you are using a pot, warm it a little with some warm water
3. Pour the just boiled water over the teabag/tealeaves. Never, ever, add milk at this stage.
4. Leave to brew – a couple of minutes should be fine; stir it a couple of times
5. Discard teabag/strain tea leaves
6. Add milk/sugar to personal taste

There we go; it really is that simple. Afterwards wash the cups and dry with a Candi’s Dog branded tea towel (coming soon!).

*There is not a single euphemism in this article.
** We are sure there are other wonderful countries with a great tea culture, just we are too poor to travel to them.  New Candi’s Dog album out this month!