I made tea cocktails with SocieTea

Catastroph-Tea as tea enthusiasts squeeze into the room

This delayed the creation of the first mocktail — the “hot-not-toddy” — not that making it any quicker would have improved anything about it. This hot, cinammon-filled mess certainly made a mockery of cocktails. A cocktail should not be hot, nor should it look like toilet water.

To make it worse it was served in a polystyrene cup, like the one you get from the burger van at Varsity. I was tempted to walk out the room in protest and the society’s destruction of my beloved cocktails, but instead I chose to stay following the D:Ream mantra that Things Can Only Get Better.

Fresh from the burger van

Reluctantly, I moved on to the next mocktail – which took the (tea-soaked) biscuit. The “Arnold Palmer” was even more of a pathetic excuse for a mocktail. Cold tea with lemonade, nothing more nothing less. That is not a cocktail, it’s not even a mocktail, it’s disappoinment – plain and simple, just like it tasted.

Can you not?

With my hopes of a good drink at an all time low, the end was in sight. The “Moj-tea-to” was last on the list and it changed my experience for the best. It actually tasted good and fairly similar to a Mojito, although I’m sure a splash of rum would have made it even better.

I don’t know whether this was deliberate but it definitely was a case of saving the best until last. Despite how good this cocktail was, it didn’t convert me into a tea-lover mainly because I don’t have time to add limes and mint to a tea when I want a cuppa.

Moj-tea-to tho

Despite my negative experience, many people seemed to enjoy these mocktails – all of whom actually drink tea. An overwhelming amount of people turned up and the committee are rightfully proud of that.

As SocieTea President Gregory Moor said: ” I’m glad that I shared my love for tea”.

SocieTea meets every Wednesday at the Hidden Cafe and membership costs £3 and includes discounts in the Union and other Leeds tea shops.