There’s something very civilised about the increased availability of tea and coffee in pubs.
For one thing, it can help to slow the pace of drinking: sometimes, you just want to take it easy. It also means that people like Bailey’s little brother who doesn’t drink, or designated drivers, get to look a bit less like little kids sucking on endless Panda Pops.
Bar staff aren’t always delighted at the prospect of making five cappucinos during a busy service, of course, so we always ask nicely…
16 replies on “A nice cuppa”
I want to know what a Panda Pop is. They get referenced quite a bit on UK beer blogs. Can we have pictures and tasting notes please?
The Lady is a tea addict so pubs that serve it enable the both of us to enjoy our favourite tipple.
Alarmingly, if you search for Panda Pops on wikipedia, it asks if you meant “Panda Porn”.
Panda Pops were a budget range of carbonated drinks, produced in Blandford Forum, Dorset, on the site of the Badger brewery. I know this because I was there recently, and after the demise of Panda Pops, Hall & Woodhouse have been left with colossal warehousing and production facilities that currently lay empty. Rest assured they will be filling them with something soon.
Zak: Interesting! I had no idea of that link … I’m a little gutted that Panda pops are a thing of the past though.
I don’t think I’ve ever had tea in a pub, outside of having it with a ‘Spoons breakfast. It’s never struck me as a problem when trying to find non-alcoholic drinks in a pub: lemonade, coke, J20, fruit juices … even alcohol free beer. Plenty of choice.
Chunk.
I’m sure corner shop does Panda Pops. How out of date are they likely to be?!?!
There appears to be a modern Panda Pops drink (I’ve been researching), but I assume this isn’t the same thing, with its very 21st century stylings.
BBB said: “It’s never struck me as a problem when trying to find non-alcoholic drinks in a pub: lemonade, coke, J20, fruit juices … even alcohol free beer. Plenty of choice.”
Yes, but tea is the finest of all non-alcoholic drinks. I like tea almost as much as I like beer, and Boak actually suffers serious withdrawal symptoms if she goes a day without at least five cups.
Part of me really disagrees with tea and coffee drinkers in pubs. The second most annoying person to be stuck behind in a Spoons is the one ordering seven hot drinks who can never remember how Mabel takes here coffee – Mabel? MABEL!! Is it a lattey? DO YOU WANT A LATTEY OR THAT FROTHY ONE?? Meanwhile, Mabel is too engrossed in deciding which ‘potato option’ to have with her transparently-thin roast dinner.
Most annoying is the ticker ordering six festival thirds, forgetting which one was which and then arguing over the redemption of a CAMRA voucher.
What would be ideal is if, away from the bar, they provided a tin of tea bags, a bottle of milk a kettle, and an honesty box, but I can’t see that ever happening in a British pub.
Because of healthandsafety, the eurocrats, and the General Collapse Of British Decency, right? Think I saw something in one of the papers about it.
Because people *believe* in those things. In the snow earlier this year, people kept telling me not to clear the pavement in front of my house because I *would* be sued. I wasn’t, and nor was anyone else.
TBN – you mean the Daily Mail presume?!
Yeah, like I’m going to admit to reading that.
and the Panda Pop is (was ?) the bottle of choice for those beer tickers who like to take beer away from beer festivals for later consumption or sharing … Steve
If this does become more widespread maybe we are also closer to being able to order a hot toddy in a pub as well. The kettle is central to this drink, which is dead simple but most bar staff look at me like I’m crazy when I ask if they can make one.
The Chandos on St Martin’s Lane has knocked me up a whisky toddy in the past, as has the Fitzroy in, er, Fitzrovia. I