What about “té con leche”?😀

[psalmone1]

Everyone talks about the wonderful café con leche, but what if tea is more to your liking? Can you even get tea along the Camino (Frances)? I don’t drink coffee but my morning cup of tea is essential.

 

[TravellingMan22]

Everyone talks about the wonderful café con leche, but what if tea is more to your liking? Can you even get tea along the Camino (Frances)? I don’t drink coffee but my morning cup of tea is essential.

Do you ‘English style’ hot tea?

 

[psalmone1]

Do you ‘English style’ hot tea?

Yes. Tea with milk and a little bit of honey/sugar

 

[J Willhaus]

I don't drink tea, however, several here who do have expressed some dissatisfaction with tea served in Spain. You may want to bring a small supply of your own.

 

[TravellingMan22]

I don't drink tea, however, several here who do have expressed some dissatisfaction with tea served in Spain. You may want to bring a small supply of your own.

Yes I agree! Not been on Camino for nearly 3 years, but have probably spent 1.5 to 2 years in Spain over the last 4 years and tea as you and I know it, not really a thing so bring your own tea bags. If you do ask say ‘hot tea’ as many parts of the world offer a millions varieties, many cold. I always have coffee now, but love tea (if you know you know!) just got out of habit!

 

[K_Lynn]

My sister does drink coffee and getting tea was sometimes a challenge. Be prepared for a herbal tisane in some places or if you're lucky Earl Grey.

Prior to my first Camino I had a Spanish language app and one of the conversations was about beverages.
¿Te gustaria cafe?
No gracias. Té por favor.
¿Té? ¿Estás enfermo?

Would you like coffee?
No thank you. Tea please.
Tea? Are you sick?

Every time my sister asked for tea, I played that little scene in my head and laughed.

 

[VNwalking]

Bring your own stash of tea bags and ask for hot water and milk. Until you get to Santiago. There Tertulia is the place to go.

 

[ThatIrishGuy]

I noticed on my last visit a surprising number of places had a large rack of various tea flavours on display behind the server. In many the display was identical so it’s a solution their suppliers have made available. I found asking for ‘English breakfast’ or ‘classic’(Classico?) got me a brew I was very happy with and I’m a teaoholic. Oh and this wasn’t a route with much English spoken or very busy.

 

[psalmone1]

Thanks so much for the tips! I was planning on bringing some bags, might have to add more to my emergency stash according to your replies!

 

[HKim]

I plan to order from amazon.es a 1.7 liter 'hervidor agua electrico' - water boiler - to be delivered to the BnB we plan to stay at our 1st two days in Spain. I haven't decided yet on which one. A 1 liter option could be had - less weight. My wife & I drink a lot of tea, and we can brew a cup to our liking - and I am accustomed to carrying a fair bit of weight on my back, so will be nudging a bit over the customary weight on the back most peregrinos recommend. We'll bring some tea, and pick up more in the larger towns as needed. We are theics.

 

[VNwalking]

The booler may be overkill. Instead consider getting an electric coil - they're lightweight and make a cup of boiling watter in a jiffy.

There's even a thread for that, long running and entertaining:

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/the-electric-coil-changed-my-life-on-the-camino.19167/

 

[OzAnnie]

I enjoy a nice ‘cuppa tea’ with milk too but I’ve found it often difficult to order at a bar in Spain; HOWEVER…. whilst walking with friends last year …. One of them was familiar with what was available and had no problem at all asking and receiving tea (but without milk)…. It’s a refreshing tea called: poleo menta

I’ve since ordered it on occasion. The bars never give you a weird look at all. Sometimes I just don’t feel like a coffee or a wine etc …. A poleo menta at the right time is ‘just what the doctor ordered’.

 

[duncanwhyte]

I use a boiling coil. You can get them from a fereteria, ironmonger or Chinese shop.

Bring as much tea as you can. The stuff in Spain is weak and you need about three teabags per cup.

Also condensed milk will travel in your backpack.

 

[Robo]

Everyone talks about the wonderful café con leche, but what if tea is more to your liking? Can you even get tea along the Camino (Frances)? I don’t drink coffee but my morning cup of tea is essential.

You may find a few 'essential' things becoming less important as you walk............

I was always keen on lots of butter on my toast in the mornings............
now I actually prefer olive oil and salt.

 

[Sacha]

Spain has tea. You can rest assured that every café and restaurant will have atleast black tea, chamomile, mint tea, mostly green tea. Other tea’s and infusion are less common.
If you want black tea with milk ask for “te negro con leche a parte” (black tea with milk on the side)

 

[OZAJ]

I have found the problem for me was not the tea, but the milk. I like coffee with long-life milk, but not tea.

My wife is OK with long-life milk in her tea.

 

[Frankybaby66]

My sister does drink coffee and getting tea was sometimes a challenge. Be prepared for a herbal tisane in some places or if you're lucky Earl Grey.

Prior to my first Camino I had a Spanish language app and one of the conversations was about beverages.
¿Te gustaria cafe?
No gracias. Té por favor.
¿Té? ¿Estás enfermo?

Would you like coffee?
No thank you. Tea please.
Tea? Are you sick?

Every time my sister asked for tea, I played that little scene in my head and laughed.

It's a bit like trying to get a decent coffee from any café where I live in the UK. . .
When in Rome etc etc

 

[Felice]

I love my tea too!
If you order a tea in a cafe, they usually fill the cup with hot water and give you a tea bag on the side. Makes a very weak cuppa.
I always bring a few tea bags with me as well as a few milk sticks and a very light plastic mug (which doubles as a fruit carrier), then I can make a brew when I'm in an albergue with a kitchen and a cool beer is not more appropriate!
Were I to walk a winter camino, I would be investigating the electric coil option.

 

[OnHellas]

Té rojo is my preference when in Spain.
Leave the way we drink milk in the UK for when you are in the UK

If red isn’t available my second choice is Negra. Third choice is something else entirely. But never coffee, pah, nasty stuff!

 

[psalmone1]

Spain has tea. You can rest assured that every café and restaurant will have atleast black tea, chamomile, mint tea, mostly green tea. Other tea’s and infusion are less common.
If you want black tea with milk ask for “te negro con leche a parte” (black tea with milk on the side)

Yay! Thank you!!

 

[psalmone1]

You may find a few 'essential' things becoming less important as you walk............

I was always keen on lots of butter on my toast in the mornings............
now I actually prefer olive oil and salt.

Té rojo is my preference when in Spain.
Leave the way we drink milk in the UK for when you are in the UK

If red isn’t available my second choice is Negra. Third choice is something else entirely. But never coffee, pah, nasty stuff!

I’m open to new experiences, that is for sure. I just am leery of the caffeine withdrawal headache. However I enjoy green, rooibois, black and herbal tea. I just would like to have that bit of caffeine in the AM. I can drink the tea black, if needs be.

 

[psalmone1]

I plan to order from amazon.es a 1.7 liter 'hervidor agua electrico' - water boiler - to be delivered to the BnB we plan to stay at our 1st two days in Spain. I haven't decided yet on which one. A 1 liter option could be had - less weight. My wife & I drink a lot of tea, and we can brew a cup to our liking - and I am accustomed to carrying a fair bit of weight on my back, so will be nudging a bit over the customary weight on the back most peregrinos recommend. We'll bring some tea, and pick up more in the larger towns as needed. We are theics.

I am likely sneaking my small, mini 1 L electric kettle in my luggage, but was wanting to hear about tea availability en route before I decided.

 

[kaney55]

Everyone talks about the wonderful café con leche, but what if tea is more to your liking? Can you even get tea along the Camino (Frances)? I don’t drink coffee but my morning cup of tea is essential.

I like a strong cup of tea so as you might already know spain and tea don't go together. I take my own teabags where ever I go even on the camino. I put about 30 teabags in a zip lock bag squeezed the air out and you're good to go. Milk is not a problem most cafes will give you hot water from the machine. Also I have found a few places on the camino with honesty boxes there is normally coffee teabags milk biscuits and a kettle with bottles of water. I once see someone take about 10 coffee sachets and some biscuits and put nothing in the honesty box grrr. I did take a kettlejust under 800ml size the 2 cups fit inside and weighs 680grams still room for a zippy bag of teabags also.the bottle of water there for comparison size.

 

[Harington]

Everyone talks about the wonderful café con leche, but what if tea is more to your liking? Can you even get tea along the Camino (Frances)? I don’t drink coffee but my morning cup of tea is essential.

Take your own tea bags (they don't weigh much). You can ask for hot water - but do offer payment

 

[Joan O.]

- I laughed reading this thread - I can understand and identify with the OP’s ‘tea needs’.
I am an elderly (therefore long-term and long -addicted ) tea drinker. Builders and Billy tea - no extraneous flavors please - very black, hot and with a drop (cloud ) of milk.

But here’s an alternate solution/proposal to the original question (a reply touched on already by Robo).

On Camino ( in five countries during the last decade ) I drink whatever the locals are having.
Do I miss the comforts of ‘my’ tea while on Camino ? Of course.
But in this way I have also been exposed to and have acquired other passions, and learned other comforts - through not dragging my own stuff with me.

I now dream of cafe con lèche when I am not in Spain or Portugal. And I have partaken in a host of ‘other’ tea offerings - some delicious, some strange, some hideous.
I have had funny and unexpected encounters through participating in local ´tea habits’.
And yes even the occasional time when I was REALLY desperate for my ´standard cuppa’ - I am certain that even then in those circumstances, I would not have considered that carrying a kettle and my tea bags with me would, on balance, have been a decent trade off.
In part at least this is because I think it is interesting, in and of itself, to confront the meaning of what we think are our ‘needs’.

Bringing the kitchen sink along on Camino obscures the chances of unexpected delights (and of course pains!). All part of the rich tapestry.

And unless you enjoy carrying extra weight for some reason or other … why would you?

Finally - to share probably the most interesting morning tea break I have ever had on Camino:
In lieu of my request for ´morning tea’ during a coastal walk I was offered half a dozen oysters and a local drink as refreshment.
I took up the offer (I would never have dreamt of taking such a ‘morning tea ´ by myself - but the locals were all doing just that). And the residual pleasure of that memorable morning tea outweighs any number of bushels of ‘my tea’ drinks!

Buen Camino
- with or without your tea!

Joan

 

[Jeff Crawley]

Do NOT, on any account, ask for "té con leche" in Spain you'll probably get what you ask for - while up on the Sierra Nevada in a Swiss style bar I plumped for hot chocolate while my companion asked for té con leche and got precisely that: a cup of hot milk with a teabag floating in it.

Generally in continental Europe, tea is of a weak consistency suitable for maiden aunts who have had an attack of the vapours. How Lipton's dare put the word "tea" on those little envelopes of fannings they sell . . .

Take a ziploc back with a supply of Yorkshire Red Label or, better still, Barry's tea (the one they have upstairs at the Pilgrim Office in SdC) if you can get them in Canada and pay for a cup of boiling water at a café.

You're on Camino, you deserve nothing less.

 

[Portach]

Thanks so much for the tips! I was planning on bringing some bags, might have to add more to my emergency stash according to your replies!

Everyone talks about the wonderful café con leche, but what if tea is more to your liking? Can you even get tea along the Camino (Frances)? I don’t drink coffee but my morning cup of tea is essential.

For an ordinary tea, ask for té negro. If you take milk ask for leche fría aparte (cold milk on the side), otherwise your tea might come already dressed with warm milk - familiarity varies from place to place. There is usually a good range of herbal teas (infusión).

 

[Gringazolana]

Here’s my suggestion to you: in the mornings, ask for “vino tinto”

 

[Anniefish]

Ask for “ te nero con un poco de leche fria” Never had a problem.

 

[Simperegrina]

I don't drink tea, however, several here who do have expressed some dissatisfaction with tea served in Spain. You may want to bring a small supply of your own.

It’s definitely on the weak side…

 

[domigee]

Everyone talks about the wonderful café con leche, but what if tea is more to your liking? Can you even get tea along the Camino (Frances)? I don’t drink coffee but my morning cup of tea is essential.

I have a flat in Spain and I bring tea bags from the UK You can find them here (Alicante) in some places (Corte Ingles delicatessen) but at a price and not always. I have never tried tea on the CF, if I were you I’d bring my own tea bags

 

[Joynz]

Cafes/bars often use UHT (long life) milk - which has an unpleasant taste and smell to me - instead of fresh milk.

So I tended to carry teabags with me and made my own tea with fresh milk - using the albergue microwave to heat the water.

I easily bought normal tea bags in supermarkets in the larger towns along the Camino. Not expensive.

In Burgos, I also bought the most delicious ginger tea bags - really really strong.

 

[jimmyc]

I always have tea. My Spanish is terrible but I usually get by with " te negro con leche. I sometimes have green tea which is te verde.

 

[psalmone1]

Here’s my suggestion to you: in the mornings, ask for “vino tinto”

- I laughed reading this thread - I can understand and identify with the OP’s ‘tea needs’.
I am an elderly (therefore long-term and long -addicted ) tea drinker. Builders and Billy tea - no extraneous flavors please - very black, hot and with a drop (cloud ) of milk.

But here’s an alternate solution/proposal to the original question (a reply touched on already by Robo).

On Camino ( in five countries during the last decade ) I drink whatever the locals are having.
Do I miss the comforts of ‘my’ tea while on Camino ? Of course.
But in this way I have also been exposed to and have acquired other passions, and learned other comforts - through not dragging my own stuff with me.

I now dream of cafe con lèche when I am not in Spain or Portugal. And I have partaken in a host of ‘other’ tea offerings - some delicious, some strange, some hideous.
I have had funny and unexpected encounters through participating in local ´tea habits’.
And yes even the occasional time when I was REALLY desperate for my ´standard cuppa’ - I am certain that even then in those circumstances, I would not have considered that carrying a kettle and my tea bags with me would, on balance, have been a decent trade off.
In part at least this is because I think it is interesting, in and of itself, to confront the meaning of what we think are our ‘needs’.

Bringing the kitchen sink along on Camino obscures the chances of unexpected delights (and of course pains!). All part of the rich tapestry.

And unless you enjoy carrying extra weight for some reason or other … why would you?

Finally - to share probably the most interesting morning tea break I have ever had on Camino:
In lieu of my request for ´morning tea’ during a coastal walk I was offered half a dozen oysters and a local drink as refreshment.
I took up the offer (I would never have dreamt of taking such a ‘morning tea ´ by myself - but the locals were all doing just that). And the residual pleasure of that memorable morning tea outweighs any number of bushels of ‘my tea’ drinks!

Buen Camino
- with or without your tea!

Joan

Ha ha gotcha. I suppose I wouldn’t be opposed to café can leche but coffee’s not really my cup of tea….HA HA

In all seriousness I would try it, though.

 

[HKim]

Regarding Lipton's - yep, not a great cuppa. Unless it is specifically Lipton's Yellow Label. Coming in a yellow box is not enough - it must state 'Yellow Label' - that variant is actually a decent, honest black tea. It's hard to find in the USA, but is reasonably common in Canada, many parts of Europe. I first encountered it in Russia.

 

[Massey]

On my last CF I had tea all the time and I did not have one complaint. I always asked for tea with lemon. Nearly all cafes did the tea in an amazing variety of tea pots. I found it it all wonderful and I'm looking forward to doing the same next month. The only time I used tea bags, which I bought locally, was in the morning. Even microwave tea tasted good.

 

[Oliviao]

Yes. Tea with milk and a little bit of honey/sugar

Asking for "Te ingles" (English Tea) can work in some places...

 

[Juno]

Thanks so much for the tips! I was planning on bringing some bags, might have to add more to my emergency stash according to your replies!

As has been said tea in Spain is difficult to come by and weak if available so definitely take your own. Same in France. Also make sure to ask for cold milk or you might get hot. I have to say though that café con leche is amazing in Spain. Can’t wait