From: utzoo!decvax!watmath!dssg
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Title: Koala tea
Article-I.D.: watmath.2555
Posted: Tue Jun  8 15:52:03 1982
Received: Thu Jun 10 00:56:05 1982


And now one for all you Shakespear bufs.

A hardened English globetrotter has been spending some time in Australia.
When the time to go back to jolly old England is drawing near, his guide
points this fact out, and they start their journey to the coast. They are
coming along on schedule (which was close cut) when at 3 with the port
almost in sight, and the boat to leave in a short while, he notes that
he will have to have tea at 4, or course. The guide is so persuaded and
they go slightly out of their way to the little town of Mercy where the guide
has promised him a superb cup of tea. They come to a little inn where an
aging lady takes their order and is persuaded to hurry. She comes back with
the requested tea, and the Englishman enjoys it immensely. In fact it THE
most wonderful cup of tea he has ever had. However the boat is about to
leave so they are off as soon as they are done. Years later he returns to
mercy in quest of this recipe. He finds the little town of Mercy again, and
asks the lady whether he can have the recipe. She invites him to see how
it is done. In the kitchen she has a large pot. This is filled with hot water.
She goes out to fetch a koala bear, and dunks it lavishly into the pot, stirs
it round etc. etc. The Englishman observer a multitude of filth that has come
off the koala and is now floating in the tea water, but the lady unperturbed,
fills a pot and fills his cup from it. He protests, of course, and asks
whether the filth ought not to be gotten out somehow, to which the lady
in a shocked manner replies:"The koala tea of Mercy is not strained".

(For those of you not familiar with the reference (like myself when I first
heard it) it's from The Merchant of Venice).