HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR TEA?

Otago Witness, Issue 3854, 24 January 1928, Page 73

HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR TEA?

“Do you like your tea weak or strong 7 Milk? and sugar? ” says the careful hostess. And sometimes you feel sh e is, perhaps, overcareful when her guests seem to take up a lot of her attention and you, perhaps have a lot to say ! Yet haven’t you met the “ slapdash ” hostess, who doesn’t inquire, or the old friend who knows you too well to inquire, and .don’t you, more often than not, suffer because she hasn’t inquired? For what happens when the “ slap-dash ” or uninquiring hostess hostess presides? Why, if she likes strong tea, you get strong tea all round. If she doesn’t take sugar, you don’t get any! I have noticed repeatedly how truly conservative women are over their likes and dislikes. Watch any of them cook bacon. They will cook it as they like it, seldom considering the tastes of those for whom they are cooking. Watch them prepare any dish. They will do so according to their ideas of how it should be prepared. All too rarely will they take the consumers into consideration.

If you wish to be a successful hostess—and this is a nice ambition, for half the time it .means making other people happy —you simply must consider your guests’ likes and dislikes.

r you know yourself how you feel whena friend says, “ Oh. I remembered how fond you were of this or that.” You are gratified to think they should remember, lou realise that they are out to please you, and you immediately feel more at home.

I know a girl who doesn’t like tea. She is a regular guest at many houses, but few—ah, very few !—of her hostesses remember this. ,There is generally the same shock of realisation at teatime. There is generally the same business of ordering coffee instead. More often than pot—for she on her side does not wish to give trouble—sue insists that she likes hot water just as well. But if I were that o-irl I should feel annoyed that mv hostess did not make a point of remembering. kome people do not take condiments. Others do not like bread, with their dinner. But since most people like both, it is unpardonable for a hostess who does not care for them to forget to provide them for others. Yet people repeatedly u ’ ,^!?de e d, the rule all round appears to be, I like it. So you must! ” Nor should this rule anply only to vour catering. • Consider the likes and dislikes of your guests in all matters. “ Difficult ’ people will come to your house sometimes, no doubt.’ Sometimes they are interesting Often they are original. Occasionally they are merely dull. But anyhow, handle them gently ’ If they ho d drastic views do not oppose them unkindly. If another of your guests is J * el y disagree with them, keep them apart at all costs! 1 .

In short, consider other people. For opinions vary as to what constitutes a nice cup of'tea !