My last entry talked about the introduction of tea bags to compete with instant coffee that had started to become popular. The convenience of tea bags soon caught on and as it grew in popularity, became a vital part of English life.

Mustache Cup. It was designed to keep 19th Century men from getting their mustaches wet.	A typical street scene. See the "Free Tea" at the bottom of the sign?

"But that is a sad development" says Edward Brahma, founder of Brahma Tea & Coffee Museum. "Tea made from tea bags isn't tea. To get the color and flavor out in a short time, leaves are crushed and chopped into small pieces. You can't get the true taste of tea that way. And since tea growers are making tea for tea bags, low quality leaves started to be produced and lowered the overall quality of tea." As a member of a family that has been in the tea business and as a tea tasater himself, developement of tea after 1950 must have been a series of disappointment and agony.

Another street scene. Trendy Londoners ride scooters.	A popular store among the Japanese, "Whittard". Also the subject of our feature next week

And to bring back the true taste of tea, Mr Brahma founded the museum. The museum has a cafe and you can drink tea brewed using the traditional method (warm the pot using boiling hot water, then brew the leaves for 5 minutes. For milk tea, put the milk in the cup first).

Yet another day of overcast sky with sprinkles. I learned about another side of tea in this country drinking tea on a quintessentially English day.