I suddenly realize what I am drinking. I am drinking black currant tea heavily laden with cream and sugar. Why in the Holy One's name would I order this, rather than the usual mid-afternoon decaf latte I order when I flee the device in my office that makes a loud ringing sound every five minutes in order to get a block of time?
Ah. I know why. I am reading Anglomania, by the excellent Ian Buruma--who I think may become for my generation what Sir Isaiah Berlin was to the previous one.
And how can one not order black currant tea and dose it with cream and sugar when one has a book called Anglomania in one's bookbag? It simply would not be done.
Posted by DeLong at April 19, 2004 06:13 PM | TrackBack | | Other weblogs commenting on this postIan Buruma (1998), Anglomania: A European Love Affair (New York: Random House (0375502068).
Why can't the world be more like England? This is the question raised by Voltaire in the Philosophical Dictionary of 1756. It is a curious question to ask, especially for a Frenchman. But Voltaire first came to England in 1726, 38 years after the Glorious Revolution and 26 years after the building of the Bevis Marks Synagogue in London (with money from a Quaker and wooden beams donated by Queen Anne). Having suffered a stint in the Bastille for publishing a satirical poem and unable to publish another poem on religious persecution in France, Voltaire saw England as a model of freedom and tolerance. That is why I will start my gallery of Anglophiles with him. Voltaire is the first or at least most famous, most humorous, most outrageous, and often the most perceptive modern Anglophile.
So why can't the world be more like England? In fact, Voltaire's query was a bit more specific: Why can't the laws that guarantee British liberties be adopted elsewhere? Of course, being a rationalist and a universalist, Voltaire had to assume that they could. But he anticipated the objections of less enlightened minds. They would say that you might as well ask why coconuts, which bear fruit in India, do not ripen in Rome. His answer? Well, that it took time for those coconuts to ripen in England too. There is no reason, he said, why they shouldn't do well everywhere, even in Bosnia and Serbia. So let's start planting them now.
You have to love Voltaire for this. It is liberal. It shows reason and good sense. It is wonderfully optimistic. And it is too glib. But then comes the Voltairean kicker at the end: "Oh, how great at present is the distance between an Englishman and a Bosnian!"
Egad. Another instance of a nation that has gone from barbarism to decadence without the intervening stage of civilisation.
As a Brit, I can tell you that putting cream, of all things, in tea or coffee is not done. We ordinarily use milk or take it black.
Posted by: P.M.Lawrence on April 19, 2004 06:27 PMThanks for the tip PM Lawrence. I'll try to remember that the next time this decadant barbarian tries to act high class and English.
What do they use cream for, then? Is the coffee?
In the US today, think it's all Masterpiece Theatre's fault.
Posted by: jml on April 19, 2004 06:33 PMVery rarely cream goes in coffee, though it does happen. More usually, as in such things as Devonshire Cream Teas, the cream goes with the accompaniments - scones and such.
Posted by: P.M.Lawrence on April 19, 2004 07:10 PM2 Victorian ladies, leaving the theatre after viewing a high spirited play about Cleopatra. Sez one,
"how different, how very different, to the home life of our own Queen!"
Posted by: David on April 19, 2004 07:42 PMThe nice thing about England is that only very rarely does one have to resort to eating English food.
Posted by: non economist on April 19, 2004 10:32 PM>It simply would not be done.
Feyerabend taught there?
_Anglomania_? Would this ever be the same book that I know under the title _Voltaire's Coconuts_? And, if so, why ever would they have changed the title for the US market? Is this another _Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (or, if you're a Yank, the Sorcerer's) Stone_ thing? How bizarre, if true. One can understand ignorant American children put off by the thought of a philosopher's stone (or a philosopher's anything). But surely the US publishers wouldn't think people like Prof. DeLong put off by a philosopher's coconuts?
And, oh yeah... that blackcurrant tea w/cream & sugar thing... surely not so much anglomanic in any PBS Masterpiece Theatre way as it is an unspeakable Anglo-French joint project... the Concorde, the Chunnel, and now this tisane from hell.
Posted by: Mrs Tilton on April 20, 2004 12:27 AMOf course, Voltaire also pointed out that the English occasionally find it necessary to shoot an admiral "pour encourager les autres" . . .
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Posted by: Barry on April 20, 2004 04:20 AMWot’s tea, Precious?
Posted by: Smeagol on April 20, 2004 04:47 AM"I am reading Anglomania, by the excellent Ian Buruma--who I think may become for my generation what Sir Isaiah Berlin was to the previous one."
This is like suggesting that Brad DeLong is the new John Maynard Keynes. Alternatively, it could be taken as a really quite incisive comment about the distinct lack of judgement of DeLong's generation.
My wife, from Kazakhstan, has an excellent Russian joke about English food:
"why do Englishmen have such thin lips?" - "because they are always trying to hold their English food in"!!!
boom-boom!
On a serious note - I am an Englishman, living in Scotland. England is a pretty diverse place, with plenty of problems still (and yes they are more serious than the climate) - it ain't no utopia. Is it a tolerant place? well I think it could be better in terms of attitudes to other nationalities and ethnicities. Any look at the immigration issue in the tabloids raises issues for like minded liberal intellectuals.
Posted by: Glenn Athey on April 20, 2004 08:15 AMBlackcurrant tea? Is this, er, a trade name, or tea made out of blackcurrants?
This former Briton must say that the only tea worth drinking is of course, from Fortnum and Mason, loose leaf (please) and one drinks it with lemon (if it is Chinese) or milk if it is Indian (certainly not cream!) and with sugar if one must. Only people like Richard Feynman drink it with both, and that was a pardonable (never to be repeated) graduate school lapse.
Tetley's British Blend teabags are always socially correct if you are a graduate student, or a humanities professor without tenure. If you have a friend in the old country who can smuggle over the occasional box of PG Tips, then that, too, is acceptable.
Jeeves, as everyone knows, is well known for bringing Bertie Wooster his morning cup of Oolong. But that is because of its well known properties for curing a hangover. SiM wouldn't know about that.
SiM's tipple of choice is Orange Pekoe, brewed strong, with skim milk. But Lapsong Souchong, (lemon, no milk, but a smidgen of sugar) on a bad day, does wonders to restore the equilibrium. Professor DeLong should try it.
Let's maintain some standards here, people!
How to make perfect tea according to Twinings
Follow these simple steps to ensure that the tea you serve is perfect every time.
1. Only use freshly drawn cold water, ensure that kettles or water boilers are de-scaled regularly and that teapots are spotlessly clean.
2. Teapots should be warmed with hot water, which is then poured away.
3. Use the recommended number of tea bags or one teaspoon of loose tea per cup. For one person use a 10oz tea pot, for two persons a 20oz tea pot is recommended.
4. Water should always be freshly boiled and boiling when added to tea.
5. Leave to brew for 3-5 minutes before serving. Stir before serving.
http://www.twinings.com/en_int/experience_tea/perfect_cup_html.html
And don't forget to only ever use bone china.
Holly's favourite tipple is English Breakfast by Twinings, and Earl Grey after sex and other such energetic pursuits.
Black currant tea is English? In which alternative universe?
But that's the whole *point* of Anglomania. Anglomanes invariably get it wrong...
Posted by: Brad DeLong on April 20, 2004 02:24 PMLapsang Souchong should have some kind of skull-and-crossbones toxic warning label.
Good for hangovers? It must have something going for it, I've never smelt anything so foul.
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Now, I'm very curious... is there a proper way to serve black currant tea?
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