How do you serve tea/coffee to a group of friends?

[MyLife]

Coffee Bar style.

[Mabelen]

For my coffee, I have an Italian stovetop coffee maker which I prefer and a French press that my husband likes a lot.

[Emba]

For coffee, which most everyone around here drinks, I have a drip maker. Make a pot, put creamer and sugar by it for everyone to doctor their own to taste. If I have a large group over I usually also have iced tea (sweet) on hand.

 

If I know I have a fellow hot tea drinker, I'll makje a pot, probably with loose tea. My pot isn't too big. I serve it either in teacups that came with my vintage China, or various other mismatched teacups and coffee cups, which I collect. I offer lemon juice, milk, honey, and sugar, half and half if I have it for one friend who likes it. I rarely have a group that wants tea, but between myself and the good friend who is a tea drinker, we'll finish it. I also have a few bags of different flavors, so I offer those. I usually only do a whole pot of black.

[Alessandra]

if no one in my house drank coffee, I wouldn't buy it just for guests! Or anything else really.

 

Lots of people I know drink pop (soda, coke) but we rarely have it in the house. Sometimes I will buy it for the kids, or if we're having a big group over and I know some people will want it. But, mostly, we don't have any; I don't offer it, and of course no one asks. I would not expect anyone to keep something in the house they don't consume, just for guests.

 

Not related to this post: The "tea snobs" I know will not drink Lipton tea. Most drink Yorkshire or another British import. I know someone who will turn down tea if it's Lipton. :-)

 

I have British relatives who tell me that British tea, such as Twinings, in the U.S. Is not as fresh as the same brand in Britain.

[Tanaqui]

My parents had express every night of their lives. I wanted tea. My mother would put a sneer on her face and say, 'You'll have to make it yourself. I don't want you upsetting the household routine.' Then periodically throughout the evening she would cross the cross-examine me as to whether I would be so rude as to ask for tea if I were in someone else's house. Ugh!

 

Somebody was rude, but it sure wasn't you.

 

Honey in tea?  I have never encountered this!

 

Really? Tea with honey and lemon was standard when I was a kid - milk and sugar was for coffee only.

 

[Laura Corin]

I have British relatives who tell me that British tea, such as Twinings, in the U.S. Is not as fresh as the same brand in Britain.

I came across Lipton in Asia. It's pretty thin stuff.

[lailasmum]

I don't make a pot of tea that often these days. Generally I make tea in mugs for however many people want tea. I usually only have Yorkshire or one other brand that tastes very similar and I default to that. I might have some herbal in the house from time to time if people want that but the bags get old since they don't get used.