O'Canada

If you’re having a cup of tea of coffee you’re probably going to want some milk and sugar. Or cream and sugar. Or maybe just milk. Or just cream. Or just sugar. Or maybe you prefer an artificial sweetener, the fake sugar stuff. You get the idea.

In Ireland in cafés and restaurants you’ll often see a little jug of milk out on the table. They just leave the stuff out on the table for people to use! How can do they this? Because Irish people drink so damned much tea. (According to the Global Marketing Information Database, Canadians spent $9.70 per capita on tea in 2008 but the Irish spent €25.3 or $40 at today’s exchange rate. I couldn’t find current tea consumption figures in GMID but we’ll dig into it.) The Irish are sloshing down so much tea, usually with milk, that the little jugs empty quickly and it’s not just sitting around going bad. Also Irish people must worry less than Canadians about people sneezing and coughing in their public milk.

In Canada there are two ways of getting milk into your tea (or cream into your coffee) at a coffee shop: frpm cartons, which are usually housed in a metal container to keep them cool, or annoying tiny little plastic containers that hold about 5 ml of liquid. If you like a healthy dollop of milk in your tea you’ll dump about five of the things into your cup and throw out a messy handful of dribbling plastic. Probably one of the things will explode when you open it and get milk all over your shirt.

A lovely jug of milk, a small selection of nice sugar, and some flowers. You know this will be a nice cuppa.

Milk and sugar in plastic containers, soy milk in cartons, different sugars and sweeteners in packets, all on a grotty table with spilled liquids and a gaping garbage hole. Get away quickly.

Sophie talked about Bewley’s and Tim Hortons in an earlier post. Here’s an in depth look at the crucial question of what to have with your drink.

At a Tim’s, you’d have a coffee. (I think theirs tastes horrible but gazillions of people disagree and drink it like it’s laced with something even more addictive than caffeine. They do make a niced “brewed tea,” which is what normal people call “tea.”) You might make it a “double double,” which is two sugars and two dollops of cream. And to go with it you’d order a Timbit, their name for what’s usually called a “doughnut hole.” Which when you think about it is a bit rude.

At Bewley’s you’d order a pot of tea and a scone. Less Canadian, more Irish … more civilized, better tasting.

A nice cup of tea at Bewley's on Grafton Street, with a scone. Note the milk jug, butter, jam, and the little madeleine that comes with the tea.

A cup of Tim Hortons coffee (for takeout) and a glazed Timbit. If you wanted sugar, milk, or cream, they put it in for you behind the counter before handing it over.

While having a cuppa at home is a mighty popular past-time in Ireland, having one while out and about also proves exceedingly agreeable to many folk. And there are certainly many, many options in terms of places to go and have said cuppa. Equally, there is no shortage of options in Canada. Both countries have the big worldwide giants like Starbucks, though interestingly enough the first Starbucks only came to Ireland a few years ago, while Starbucks have been in around in Canada for many years.

But what about the coffee and tea retailers founded and headquartered on native territory? Here are a few examples below:

Bewley's of Grafton Street, originally opened in 1927, is now owned by an Irish entrepreneur, Patrick Campbell and his family. It's the last of the Bewley's Cafes in Ireland, and a treasured Dublin landmark. The demise of the Bewley's cafes was a significant event for many Irish people, and to this day one of the blog authors, Sophie Bury, experiences a pang of nostalgia literally every time she hears the place mentioned! This Tea Emporium was a hangout for old and young over many years, where cherry buns, almond rings, and hearty Irish teas (sausages, beans, chips etc.) were served up in cosy surroundings.

Tim Hortons is something of a national symbol or cultural fixture in Canadian Life. It was founded by Canadian hockey player Tim Horton in the 1960s, and is famous for the coffee and doughnuts it serves, and seriously beloved by many Canucks. Lineups (both drive-through and in-person) and quite a common sight at Tim Hortons. And the sheer number (close to 3,000 across Canada in 2009) is a testament to their popularity.

Butlers Chocolates, luxury Irish chocolates, are something for which Ireland is deservedly well regarded. It was founded back in the 1930s. In 1998 the same folks who make these chocolates started establishing cafes throughout Ireland. Teas, speciality coffees and other hot beverages can be enjoyed here. The chocolate one receives with every hot beverage purchase is a well-received gesture.

Second Cup, founded in Canada in 1975, is Canada's largest speciality coffee shop chain. It is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, and has 360 retail stores across Canada.

This is the first of a series of posts about what having a cuppa looks like on Irish soil versus Canadian soil.

The tea culture is a strong one in Ireland, to put it mildly! We’ve heard tell that the Irish drink more tea than the British, in fact. According to Lyon’s tea web site,  there are 4.24 million people in Ireland, and 3 million of them drink tea, giving us one of the highest tea consumptions in the world.

And this culture has been epitomized through characters such as Mrs. Doyle in Father Ted, as is explained in this “Mad About Tea” Daily Spud post. Her existence would lack a whole lot of meaning if it weren’t for the daily ritual of making the Fathers’ tea. And when, in one episode, they think they are doing her a big favour by giving her a tea maker, the audience realizes soon that she is literally devastated to have one of her favourite occupations threatened by a machine. And as such, she destroys said machine!

So when at home, odds are in most Irish households, a lot of tea is being consumed at any one time, and that the tea on offer would be one of two brands (the two big tea giants of Ireland). If household occupants hail from Southern parts, especially Cork, odds are they will be consuming a cup of Barry’s tea (established in Cork and still owned and operated there), and if from Dublin or its environs, the tea of choice is Lyons tea (taken over by Unilever in 1996, but originally a company with Dublin owners). And elsewhere it could be one or t’other.

In Canada, a “regular” tea, manufactured on home turf, is often Red Rose. It’s orange pekoe, which seems to be the staple, “normal” tea for many Canadians. Compared to an Irish brew (which can involve up to three teabags a pot), it’s a rather timid brew. But nonetheless, very palatable!

Canadians, while very partial to a cup of tea, the authors find, are by no means in a league with the Irish, and on average would tend to drink more coffee relative to tea, when compared with the Irish. But we give credit to Canadians, who seem more inclined to drink herbal (note h silent in Canadian English, but not in Irish English) tea. But in recent years, perhaps as a result of recent Celtic Tiger yuppiedom (hey remember one of the blog authors is Irish, so can say this!), the herbal variety is much more common now in Ireland too.

Barry's, a brand of tea, manufactured in Cork, Ireland.	Red Rose. A Canadian brand, that is a staple in many Canadian homes.
Lyons, manufactured in Dublin, is a very popular brand of tea in Ireland.

Red Rose is famous in Canada for its advertisements with the line “Only in Canada? Pity.” This 1989 TV ad shows one of the usual English stereotypes: