Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-11

! After all, coffee does quite as well as
tea as q conversational medium. Per-
haps there is something more masculine
about It, better suited to the American
male taste.
Tea, with us, is mentally associated
with the soft rustic of feminine clothes
and voices; coffee, in the other cup, is
the drink of the trenches, the drink
given to hremen on cold Winter nights,
the beverage of husky taxicab drivers.
Both coffee and tea shine as social
drinks because they loosen the tongue,
| but without causing it to wag foolishly
Coffee, in particular, Is the best of all
drinks for the morning conversation.
| A morning conversation is the i'm
| promptu gathering of kindred souls for
a cup of coffee and n bit Of talk before
the serious work of the day begins. 1t
/ may come at or o'clock, but when
ever it arrives, the coffee is merely an
| excuse.
Men need excuses They cannot talk
! together without smoking or drinking.
They could as easily gather around a
table, with nothing in their hands, and
| talk over the problems of the world,
but that would take on the aspects of
debating society.
They need something in their hands,
something to give themselves an occu-
pied feeling, when the conversation
lags. Men are afraid of silence. What
they say may please or anger them, but
1t will not make them afraid Fear
enters only when silence blots down
upon the company.
The absurdity of it is that fear may
be baniShed by the simple expedient Of
picking up q cup and solemnly quaffing
| a few spoonfuls. While one is occu-
pied one is not afraid.
**
Even he who prefers coffee will ad-
NIT the fascination of tea. This comes
about, we believe, because tea leaves
one unsatisf1ed. There Is no tea, how
ever good, but what one may dream
of better. With coffee, this is not So
There are coffees on the market which
are close to theoretical perfection.
One scarcely ever tastes q tea, how
ever, without thinking that the perfect
tea is yet to be found. In this the tea
drinker rivals the pipe smoker, who
eternally keeps on the lookout for the
perfect tobacco. Even those who think
they have found 1t, If you could get
them TO admit it, would be willing to
say that there might be q better.
1.-THE philosophic resignation Of the
guest to the fate awaiting him in the
single instance the Oriental spirit
reigns supreme" declares Okakura
Kakuzo, in his good book on tea.
No one ever knows, when he faces a
cup of tea, just what he will get. This
is a part of its charm. The exact tenn
perature of the water, the precise
strength of the brew, in relation to the
taste Of the one faster, these things are
of far greater moment than with cof-
fee, and upon them depends the very
essence, the very soul, of the tea.
We read q letter in the New York
Times some weeks ago in which tea
enthusiast proclaimed q mixture of IL
ounces of Oolong, 2 ounces OF
Young Hyson and ounces of Gun
powder, as the ideal. Here one has old
fashioned black and green mixed.
According to him, the water should be
brought to a boil, the tea put in, and
then boiled just one minute, no more
nor less. We have always been suspi-
cious Of stepped tea, in the cup, and
believe this boiling method to be the
correct one, II there is any such thing
as a correct" method in tea making
which perhaps there Is not.