What is happening in Great Britain today? Traditional tea rooms are on the decline while lattés, caramelattés, cappuchinos, mochachinos and espresso drinking cafés are on the upswing. The new millenials would rather log on and slurp, than clink cups and sip. Although people are living longer, older generation Brits just can’t seem to hold onto their dying traditions anymore. The solid foundations are slipping away. The special occasion “afternoon tea” may be as popular as ever, but the mid-morning, mid-day, early evening tea break is just about gone.
Now there appears to be a war between Caffé Nero, Starbucks and Costa. Take away their signs and all the marketing materials, and quite honestly, they are impossible to tell apart. No character. No charm. No unique identity. They refer to themselves as “customer centric”? What exactly does “customer centric” mean anyway?
They each use surveys to track the customer service experience. Surveys from how the customers like the furniture, the music, the art, and most recently what was printed on the take-away cup. What about a survey about how good the coffee or tea tastes? I guess that’s no longer important.
When I go to one of these take-away cafes, I know I’m going to have to compromise on the quality of the tea that I’m about to order. I love green tea, but I know it will be a teabag of questionable quality, steeped with water that is far too hot and, if I don’t tell them to please not put the teabag into the cup, it will definitely be oversteeped and bitter. I will carry the cup, perhaps on a tray, back to a table, which may or may not be clean, slopping most of the tea over the top, only to find that there’s no chair available, and napkins are nowhere in sight. (Sigh)
And the media tells me everyone is so concerned about their calorie and sugar intake, yet many Brits now consume these beverages regularly. Action on Sugar, which is a group of specialists concerned with sugar intake and its effects on health, analyzed 131 hot drinks and found Starbucks, Caffé Nero and Costa to be among the worst offenders.
At Starbucks a “White Chocolate Mocha Venti with Whipped Cream” has 18 teaspoons of sugar. Now, if I’m ordering dessert at a restaurant, that might be okay, but … really … this is just a beverage? All right, that might seem a bit extreme. How about if we wanted one of their seasonal beverages, such as Starbuck’s seasonal Hot Mulled Fruit drinks? Would you believe 25 TEASPOONS of sugar! Or if you think a nice hot chai would warm you up, at Costa a Chai Latte has only 20 teaspoons of sugar. ONLY 20 TEASPOONS!
Want to know how many teaspoons of sugar are in a steaming, hot cup of tea? 0 Oh, maybe I didn’t stress that enough …. 0! If you want sugar, you can put it in yourself. I dare you to add 20 teaspoons of sugar to your cuppa and see if you still want to drink it.
We might have to get into the cost of these highly-calorific beverages on another post, but, for now, just think of the calorie savings alone. The lowly cup of tea has 0 fat and 0 calories. You can still hold it in your hands. It still warms you. It tastes delicious. It is very social. What’s better than sharing a good pot of tea with friends? And it costs pennies.
So c’mon Brits. Don’t be like so many other countries and let your traditions slip away. Does every shopping area need to look like every other shopping area and every café look like every other café? Perhaps tearooms may not be the chic, savvy trend-setting places they once were, but what they always have provided is a hearty cuppa, for a reasonable cost, warming the hearts and hands of generations of Brits!
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References: Independent, Nunwood, Action on Sugar, TEA & COFFEE magazine
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In one bowl mix together the flour and cornstarch. In another bowl using a stand or hand mixer, beat the softened butter til creamy. Add 1/2 cup of sugar to the creamed butter and beat til lemony colored, light and airy.
Using a wooden spoon, slowly add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, blending well. The mixture will be very crumbly (short). Don’t overwork the dough or your cookies will be tough. Dump the batter into the prepared baking pan and press down with your hands. Use whatever you happen to have (with a flat bottom) to press the batter down firmly and evenly.
Bake at 350° for 16 to 18 minutes – just until its set and lightly browned. Take the shortbread out of the oven and let it cool in the pan while you prepare the caramel.
When it is ready, pour the caramel over the cooled shortbread and place the pan into the refrigerator to let the caramel set.
This is the easiest part … dump a bag of chocolate chips (milk chocolate or semi-sweet, it’s up to you), into a microwave-proof bowl and melt the chocolate. When its melted, stir in the oil. Quickly pour the warm chocolate over the cooled caramel filling and, with the back of a spatula, smooth out the surface. Let the chocolate cool completely.
When ready to serve, take the shortbread out of the pan. If you’ve used parchment paper, you can just lift it up and out. Using a very sharp knife, cut the shortbread into bars or squares. It’s up to you! Stack them up on a plate and keep an eye on them because they’ll disappear right before your eyes. But, if they don’t, they’ll keep very well in an airtight container.