A Mad Hatter’s Tea Party

This article appears in the March issues of the SE Group of Magazines.

Years ago I was invited to do some work for the Houston Heritage Society, which protects the city’s monuments; the most charming of which is a 19th century clapboard church surreally located amongst the downtown skyscrapers.

The Texas ladies were delightful and delighted to meet an Englishman from the land, it transpired, of their heroine. My first night I was asked to join them at their sundown Jane Austen book club.

This was the early nineties, before Ophra’s, Richard and Judy’s and even ‘The Jane Austen Book Club’. I had no idea what a book club was. ‘Was Austen banned in this great state? Did her readers have to meet after dark in secret?’ I wondered as I wandered across the lawns to where my host, Lorelei, had gathered on her lanai with her fellow devotees. Approaching, the unveiling scene took on a more sinister coven-quality. On the table, around which they were seated, was a framed portrait of the author but more worrying were the bizarre hats they were all wearing. Each of which had been cut from a different chintz cloth but all from the same peculiar pattern.

‘Y’all admiring our bonnets Master Lawrence?’

Far from regency, their ‘bonnets’ had been fashioned after the headgear of a First World War fighter pilot. It was as though Laura Ashley had done an extreme makeover on Biggles.

“Well what do y’all think? Miss Lorelei makes them all.’ 

Not wanting to offend my host, I panicked as words failed me. Deftly my integrator’s co-pilot took control, ‘Surely Master Lawrence must be parched?’

Saved by the Southern Belle I emitted a tiny dry cough, feebly stroking my throat.

A foot high glass, containing mainly ice-cubes but also a light-brown watery liquid, was thrust into my other, free hand. What potion was this? Houston do we have a problem?

Everywhere I went in Texas I was handed a vase of iced tea, Southern hospitality decreed it so.

Later I was to mentally bundle iced tea with those ice-cream cones stuffed with marshmallow and sprinkled with hundreds-and-thousands that you see in bakers’ windows, label the whole lot ‘food stuffs to avoid’ and - apart from a few dabbles with Snapple - pretty much forget about it.

Until recently whilst considering the sugar content of the fruit juice my Godchildren were consuming (10% the same as Coke); iced fruit tea occurred to me as a viable alternative. We are all aware of the antioxidant properties of especially green and white tea: but strawberry tea is great for upset stomachs, raspberry can help in later stages of pregnancy, peppermint is a digestive aid and ginger is good for motion sickness.

I make several jugs at a time in my Bodum maker from the shop, which I store in the fridge. Ideal for when friends pop over. Although I have yet to host my own Book Club, when I do I shall be ready! Well apart from the bonnets.

Talking of tea, it is worth checking out the amazing selection of loose teas at Le Chandelier on Lordship Lane.