(Gin and tonic overtakes tea as Britain’s favourite drink
- The Sunday Times)
Do you remember how it used to be?
What mum would do if anything upset her?
She’d make herself a proper cup of tea,
And then she would feel ever so much better.
Or, if she wanted something alcoholic,
From May, when sumer was icumen in,
Pre-dinner drink, or maybe evening frolic,
Her choice of spirit always would be gin.
Though she was canny – took the docs’ advice:
“When autumn winds blow briskly, it is risky
To sup on bevvies that demand some ice.
Better keep warm with tots of Highland whisky.”
For centuries, a cuppa was our balm,
Serving us as a soothing psychic ointment
To dampen irritations, keep us calm,
When facing some reverse or disappointment.
What’s changed? Why is the ancient lore outmoded?
Is it the fact that winter’s fierce assaults
Are milder now? Has climate change exploded
The need we had to turn to single malts?
Should we condemn today’s acceleration
Of global heating? It’s gone supersonic.
Refreshment for a newly-sweaty nation?
For that, there’s nothing like a gin and tonic.
We eat light lunches – later evening dinner;
No heavy midday meal, then tea and supper.
Is that the change that crowns gin as the winner,
Defeats devotion to the healing cuppa?
Or is it that the world’s gone badly wrong,
The problems that we face are now so deep,
Beyond the reach of Tetley’s or Souchong
To touch, however long we let it steep?
Our daily lives become much more complex;
They’re far more stressful than they used to be.
Is that it? We’re a bunch of nervous wrecks?
Enough!
Too much!
I need
a G
and
T!