I've never written an essay on the standard of tea, and tea-making, here in Denver, and I'm not going to go on at length about it now.

If any British readers have ever had Lipton tea, you'll know just how shite it is, and how, like a lot of tea in the US, it's geared towards making good iced-tea, rather than good hot tea.

Of course, finding a restaurant in the US, that actually uses boiling water to make tea, rather than just hot, is a bit like trying to find the Pope's mother-in-law's phone number. Americans (for the most part) just don't get it. They don't have to have boiling water to make good coffee, and so they don't see why it has to be boiling for tea. Try explaining why to them, and sit back and watch the confused looks you'll get.

Anyway, it seems appropriate that on the eve of the Fourth of July, where we celebrate getting rid of all those loud, pushy, badly-dressed puritans, that DMfM should bring you some tea-related craziness.

Oh, and FYI America, it was the puritans who persecuted the rest of the British and the Irish, and not they who were persecuted. It's just possible that given that your history books were written by your nation's forefathers (puritans) that they might have twisted the story a bit.

One of DMfM's senior UK operatives has brought nicecupofteaandasitdown.com to our attention. It's cutting-edge tea-centric information for the on-the-go tea-drinker. No, go look anyway, it's got a good sense of humour.

Talking of Lipton and their dire tea, visit Lipton's Hong Kong website if only for the intro movie, showing what happens when you make Britons drink that Americanised Lipton shite.