How  DO you make tea if you live on a hill, or in the Alps?

What a pointless question, you ask, but I DO need an answer.

Ok; I’m addicted to my morning cuppa, have been since a child, when I put white sugar in it. Later I swapped to yummy Demarara, dark brown and damply mobile.

Now I savour the tea taste and abhor the sweetness. I have different teas from different climates and geography, and choose at random every morning, sometimes sticking with the same blend for months until a change is needed.

But there’s a problem.

Most of my life and tea-time has been lived at sea-level, or near. Recent visits to 400 metres above sea-level do not affect my tea quality.

But for almost 20 years my house is at 800 metres, and during all that time I haven’t made a drinkable cup. No matter how I go about it.

I’ve even toyed with the idea of making it in a pressure-cooker; that could work, I’ll let you know.

Why the problem?

Well, at 800 metres, water boils at a couple of degrees below normal boiling-point, so the brew never gets hot enough to make a good pot. You can cook away for an hour, and though it looks like boiling, it’s not at 100 degrees. At the top of Mount Everest you can put your hand in ‘boiling’ water. Tea is impossible. I think. Haven’t checked yet; silly of me, I should always check before I blog.

No-one else complains about my tea. Perhaps it’s psychological. But I can’t enjoy the stuff. Maybe the pressure-cooker will do the trick.