A nice cup of tea

Fljótshlið from the air, Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull in the background.
Picture taken by Jónas Gunnlaugsson

Coffee is a big deal in Iceland. One of the oldest coffee shops in town is still open, Kaffi Mokka, and it is by far the most relaxing and best place to spend a Sunday afternoon eating Belgian waffles, drinking hot chocolate or coffee and talking to people as they pass. It is a nice social place and it has regulars like Old Mens´pubs at home do.

I only started drinking coffee because of my links with Iceland. A overly kind and welcoming farmer in Fljótshlíð invited my field assistant and I in for dinner (delicious poached haddock with boiled potatoes.. shame she was allergic to fish) followed by coffee (shame I didn´t drink coffee). We both politely ate the meal and sipped the coffee and were shocked, slightly awkward and rather bowled-over by the situation. In fact, we were a little scared by being two young women stuck in a middle aged man´s house being offered dinner and free accommodation. We dashed off so quickly afterwards without trying to seem impolite that we abandoned our spade against the garden fence and never found the guts to go back and get it.

I´ve since learnt that this offer of dinner and coffee was a traditional country welcome and that this man had no history of strangeness or of abducting young women. He has since though married a nice foreign girl somewhat younger than him. She perhaps saw his kindness and friendliness in a different light and certainly she has a good traditional cook to live with.

So, out of politeness I began drinking coffee. I found myself many times sitting in queues in offices and stopping off in gas stations and reaching out for a shot of free, strong and bitter coffee. I wouldn´t say I was addicted but I have at least developed a taste it. Before that I was a tea addict, still am... a nice cup of tea and a sit down. Mmmm.

The British tea council announced last autumn that this is no problem (they are of course perhaps not so objective) and that drinking four cups of black tea is proven to significantly reduce stress levels. Scientists at UCL published results in the journal Psychopharmacology that showed that 50 minutes after an allocated stressful task, cortisol levels had dropped by an average of 47 per cent in the tea drinking group compared with 27 per cent in the placebo tea group. Can we assume these scientists were non tea addicts and therefore unbiased, I mean, isn´t is quite well known how lobby groups can try to influence scientific studies. Anyway, I like the results.. tea is good for me.

Being a tea addict in Iceland is a problem. Melrose´s Tea is the main brand here with its distinctive red packaging and distinctively bad, rather fishy taste. Tetley is gradually infiltrating. Twinings Earl Grey is the answer. I am forever buying Hagkaup out of its Earl Grey supply and am wondering if it is time to make a deal with the importer. Last summer I ordered 20 or so packets of tea from an online supermarket and had it delivered to my parents before they made their annual Landrover and ferry pilgrimage to Iceland. The supermarket didn´t have enough. A day beginning without tea is a tough day.

When my grandfather (Papa) died I inherited his little metal tea pot and it is one of my most treasured items. It came to Iceland with me and has since travelled with us to summer houses around the south and west of the country and even came on the mystery adventure to Viðfjörður and to the rather luxurious mountain hut at Básar in Þórsmörk. I give Papa a happy thought every morning.

Papa´s teapot on holiday at Seljalandsfoss, April 2006

Next time any of you drop by lets go for a tea and waffles at Kaffi Mokka... or we can stop your coffee shakes and try some heavy duty Icelandic coffee. Today though I am sat at home where I can always have a cup of tea to hand and the biscuit box next to me while writing .. for once both papers and blog.