Alistair wrote:
"Little do they know it, but Americans left the best cup of tea in the world behind them when they left from the Mayflower steps in Plymouth.
Going back as far as I can remember it used to be served out of the back of a Ford Escort van. Before that it was probably served from the back of a cart, or from the back of a donkey, or something.
I'm talking about Cap'n Jack. Cap'n Jack's sells the best cup of tea in the whole world. It's now a shack right on the Barbican seafront in Plymouth, about fifty yards from the Mayflower steps. They do brilliant bacon and chip butties too. But let's not go there. It's the tea we're talking about here.
Oh yes.
When it was sold from the back of the van it was five pence, that was probaly 10 years ago. Now it's twenty pence. It comes in a chipped white mug with a teaspoon chained to the handle. You pay a fifty pence deposit on the mug, which, when you return the mug you are invited to donate to charities for benevolent fishermen. Or something. When the tea used to be five pence, the deposit was twenty pence.
The tea itself is brewed up in giant vats behind the counter. They used to have just one of these vats in the back of the van, but I'm pretty sure that this same vat is one of the ones in the new shack. It's a strong murky dark brown. There's big plastic ice cream tubs full of sugar on the counter that you can shovel into your tea, using the spoon that's chained to the mug.
An experience everyone in the world should have it to walk along Plymouth Hoe in a howling gale, then wander down to the Barbican and get a mug of tea from Cap'n Jack's.
This is a Real Man's mug of tea. None of your nancy fine bone china cups and saucers here. A mug of tea from Cap'n Jack's will make you feel like sawing your leg off and adopting a parrot.
Best bloody mug of tea in the world."
