Literary Beverages Part One

Doppelgänger shreddies and plums

Some of you may already know that when I was little I thought that chamomile tea must be a sweet-tasting miracle drink, more delicious than horlicks, or ovaltine (back when ovaltine was still delicious), or hot milk and honey. I was desperate to try it. It was the drink given to Peter Rabbit following his misadventures in Mr McGregor's garden -- how could it not be delicious?

When eventually I did taste it, I was quite underwhelmed. This was no tasty elixir: just a watery, slightly nose-tickling insipidness… My impressions otherwise stemmed, I think -- like many things in my early life -- from a fatal misunderstanding of the text: Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail supped on bread and milk and blackberries, after all; it was only my hero, naughty Peter, who was sent to bed with camomile tea to be taken one spoonful at a time…

Still, I'm increasingly fond of it these days. Maybe it's the mug: