Grandmother, born in County Tyrone, believed as a good Irishwoman that there were only three kinds of tea fit to drink, none of them store-bought. All the tea used in our house came once a year, in one or two beautifully soldered tin boxes, from Dublin.

Grandmother also believed that tea, when properly made, should be served strong enough to trot a mouse on. I never tasted her noontime tipple, but I feel sure that it was as bitter as it was black, beyond much help from milk or even sugar. I knew though that it made cheeks pink and tongues looser, as its potency warmed my parents' blood, and I enjoyed their innocent release.

M.F.K. Fisher, Introduction, The Tea Lover's Treasury, 1982