sam and the city

God help me i'm becoming english

Good day faithful readers. Firstly, let me state for the record, at no point have I ever put lemonade in my beer!

Since I've come over to the UK I've noticed that don't have the same drinking habits as Australians. In fact some of their habits would get you run out of town if you even suggested them in an average Australian pub.

Let me start with tea, which we all know that the British are famous for, but in Australia is kind of regarded as a grandma drink. Now obviously when I came over here I expected to see more people drinking tea than I normally would back at home. The extent of it didn't really hit home until I was serving breakfast one day at the world famous Blue Anchor. First thing in the morning, a bunch of workers, real manly men, staying at the hotel come in for something to eat. "Would you like something to drink guys? A coffee?" I ask them. The response I received from each and every one, "no thanks, tea please"! Now if there's any group of people that I would have expected to see drinking coffee over tea it's the manual labourer, but apparently not.

The second strange drinking habit that the English have is that they drink a much greater quantity of cider (eg. Strongbow) than I've ever noticed being drunk in Australia. In Australia ciders are really seen as a bit of a girls drink, mainly because it tastes like a soft drink. It's basically an alco-pop in disguise. Over here though they valiantly argue that it's every bit as manly as beer, if not more-so. This is because there are a lot of ciders that have alcohol contents even greater than most wines. Don't change the fact that they're sweet and tangy though!

The final and most appalling drinking habit that they have over here (I'm ignoring the warm beer thing, we all know about that one) is that they continually put lemonade in their beer. I don't think that I've ever heard someone order a shandy in Australia but I used to pour them quite regularly here. They weren't as popular however as the lager top, which is basically a pint of lager with a splash of lemonade. Can you imagine the look you would get if you ordered such a drink in an Australian pub... "You want me to do WHAT with your beer? Why don't I just spit in it while I'm at it, after all you're not going to be able to drink it".

Now as I initially stated, at no point have I ever even had the inclination to put lemonade in my beer, let alone gone through with the act. I will however hang my head and admit that I have taken to drinking tea and cider. Only occasionally though! I'm still firmly on the side of coffee and beer! It's nice having a cider while your sitting out in the sun with your shirt off soaking up the few minutes of rays we get... did I really just admit to that?

posted by sam @ 10:44 am