TRADITIONALISTS reading our feature on page 13 may think it impertinent that an American should deign to teach us how to take tea.

Our empire was built on a strong cuppa, after all. Yet it crumbled like shortcake long ago. Now the nation that gave the world the railways cannot make its own trains run on time.

So we should pay attention to Heather Eisenhut's lessons on making and taking a brew.

If we could recover this lost art and replace all those American coffee houses with English tea rooms, who knows what we may achieve?

Updated: 10:52 Tuesday, September 23, 2003