The Speed of Toast

You learn a lot when serving morning tea. You learn that serving coffee and tea is pretty relaxing. Everyone’s happy with the person who gives them coffee, or tea if that’s your thing.  

It takes on average a minute or less to pour the drink and add the milk or sugar. The hardest part is planning the 15 minutes or so it’ll take to bring the water up to boil, grind the beans and steep the tea. I expected Good Friday morning tea would be similar.  

It was when my very experienced morning tea teacher Sheryl tapped me on the shoulder and said “we need about two dozen more hot cross buns made asap”, that I had the first inkling that we might be a little behind schedule. 

We toasted the buns for morning tea. A toaster takes an average of 3 minutes per cycle. There were 6 toaster slots. Then there’s an extra minute for slicing, buttering and general fumbling. At best, those two dozen hot cross buns would take 16 minutes to make. The occasional burnt bun made it a little longer. 

As Sheryl predicted, we were very behind schedule as the dozens apon dozens of very excited and happy requests for hot cross buns started rolling in. Were you staff in a restaurant; the tolerance might have been thin. When you’re giving people coffee and treats for nothing but a smile, people are happy and grateful. The community fellowship we create through our morning tea is well worth the effort. Food is a bridge to conversation and helps us connect with others. 

I did learn however, that making hot cross buns takes a little more prep work and planning, than your average cup of coffee. Next year, we’ll see if I can beat my record of 18 minutes lag time.  

**picture is licensed under a wikipedia commons license, its public domain.