[Closed] The Great British Cuppa

Coffee before 12:00, tea after, no caffeine after 9pm
Both have their place rather than in competition with each other, but nothing can touch the first coffee of the day but also you can't beat a cuppa sometimes as well..
Edit, and only use teapots with ladies in attendance..
Edit edit, travel kettle and teabags go everywhere, coffee is aquired when available...

Espresso first thing, then maybe 2 or 3 redbush or earlgrey/redbush blends through the day.

So not really the standard cuppa, but that lot is my standard routine.

Mid afternoon pot of tea made with proper tea leaves and served in a bone china mug. I can then pretend to be a lady. 😉

Oh no ... coffee first thing! How could you!

It's got to be tea ... preferably in bed!!

Mid afternoon pot of tea made with proper tea leaves and served in a bone china mug. I can then pretend to be a lady.

LOL ... proper tea leaves rather than teabags. How sophistcated ... but no mention of cake!

 

Tea.

Coffee is vile

Tea when it's cold or I'm camping. Coffee never, bloody horrible stuff.

Sophisticated is not a word I'd use, a picky cah would be more appropriate. Cake not necessary, tea needs to be savoured rather than run the risk of sugar contamination.

Cup of PG first thing in the morning (too tired to bother with anything else)

followed by loose leaf Earl Grey in one of these while at work

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The evening is then purely for absinthe and meths!...and cake

Sugar in tea is vile, mingingly disgustingly vile..
And without wishing to be a bit OTT, if you so much as stir my tea with a spoon that's stirred tea with sugar in, I will kill you.. and put too much milk in my tea and I'll hunt down and murder every generation of your family, burn down your houses and salt the scorched earth that remains..
But I like sugar in coffee..

I don't drink tea

Agree ... sugar in tea is the Devil's work.

Now we've mentioned milk ... milk in first or last?

Houns - Member
Tea.

Coffee is vile

+1, though it's lovely in cake!

If you put it in first you're a ****!

If you put it in first you're a ****!

ouch! 🙂

 

Milk first , tea bag on the top a millisecond before the water is slowly poured on it.
The tea bag inflates and rises up. Therefore the tea really doesn't go in the milk.
You get a lovely thick cup of tea without that scummy film on the top.

Milk?!! devils work. How are you supposed to taste the tea?

If you put it in first you're a ****!

Make my day khani, what am I?

Tea. Always tea.
Yorkshire tea at that.

Drink it all day long, always take tea bags with me when I travel and always have some tea bags in the back of the van along with a Jetboil so I can have a cuppa after a ride if I feel like it 8)

If making tea properly then milk first. If making tea the quick way (teabag in mug) then milk last.

Coffee has no place in any food stuff

Ah ... a mention of Taylors Yorkshire Tea ... top marks!!

And time to confess ... milk in first if it's made properly in a pot, but slum it when camping/out the back of the van and its tea bag in the mug and then milk, but only AFTER it's brewed and the tea bag removed...standards please!

Houns - Member

Tea.

Coffee is vile

Couldn't agree more 😀

Tea in bed
Coffee with breakfast
Espresso after a meal
Tea (from a pot) with scones, jam and clotted cream after a long day in the hills

I quite often have tea when we go out for a curry.

Make my day khani, what am I?

Can I be a **** too?

You already are...

Generally tea during the day (milk first). Sometimes coffee in the evening and always fresh coffee with breakfast at the weekend - unless it's a fry up when it has to be tea, obviously.

Tea bags and milk should never exist in the same vessel

Now we've mentioned milk ... milk in first or last?

This depends on how you make your tea or how posh you are.

Teabag in cup - The milk should never touch the teabag for 2 reasons. 1) it stops it brewing properly by cooling it down. 2) Milk in the soggy teabag goes off and makes the bin smelly.
Then you can easily adjust the strength of your tea with the appropriate amount of milk. This is all provable fact

With a teapot things get more complicated.
As I'm common I put the milk in first. Common people originally did this as their cheaper pottery could crack more easily if hot liquid was added alone. Adding milk first cools it a bit and makes this less likely.
Also, it mixes itself and you don't need a spoon to stir it

Posh people should have better crockery that wouldn't crack with the heat and would be passed their tea in a cup and saucer with a teaspoon on the side. They would then add milk to taste and stir, pinky in the air, of course.

That, I believe, is roughly how it works. 🙂

Yak - Member
Milk?!! devils work. How are you supposed to taste the tea?

Exactly! Although one does drink Lady Grey, or occasionally Earl Grey with a slice of lemon.
Even when one has to sink to the absolute depths and drink common tea, still no milk.

Nice work PeterPoddy. Good social history lesson which I recall having heard before.

Lady Gresley ... little pinky in the air I guess! ... but we're talking real man's tea here, aka builders tea!!

No one dare mention fruit teas!!...

I just need to mention that you, Dear English People, spread a massive lie around the world regarding tea drinking!

I learned that there is that massive thing here called "5 o'clock" - celebrated by everyone, everywhere. You go to the shops in Poland, Germany, Czech or wherever and you can buy English tea, often called "5 0'clock".

Being in the UK for long enough to observe few things I must say I've never seen anyone looking at the watch saying "excuse me, gentlemen/ladies! It's 5 o'clock, let's have some tea!".

What's wrong with you??? 😆

Set yourself free when the click strikes 3 as everything stops for tea.

Here you go(c/o Fortnum and Mason):

This thorny question has divided tea drinkers for quite some time. Putting the milk in last was considered to be the ‘correct’ thing to do in refined social circles, but the reason for this is often forgotten. In the early days of tea-drinking, poor-quality cups were inclined to crack when hot tea was poured into them, and putting the milk in first helped to prevent this. When finer and stronger materials came into use, this was no longer necessary – so putting the milk in last became a way of showing that one had the finest china on one’s table. Evelyn Waugh once recorded a friend using the phrase ‘rather milk-in-first’ to refer to a lower-class person, and the habit became a social divider that had little to do with the taste of the tea.

Having said that, there is a good reason for adding the milk last – if you are drinking an unfamiliar tea, it is easier to judge the correct amount of milk to add once you have seen the strength and colour of the tea. On the other hand, putting the milk in first means that the fat in the milk emulsifies in a different way when the tea is poured, which does change the flavour of the tea, giving it a more even, creamier flavour. It also cools the tea slightly to a more acceptable drinking temperature. So, now that the days when one’s social position was judged by this sort of thing are long gone, you may pour your tea however you choose.

So it depends if you are a snob and/or lack confidence with your tea or if you prefer a creamer brew.

Well I never.

I believe there was also a historical social convention around milk last.

If during the era when Britain was great you were wealthy enough to have staff, the butler (or someone from 'downstairs') would pour the tea and then leave the room. the ladies would then serve the milk and (please not) sugar to the gentlemen. Showing how wonderfully dainty and dutiful they were.

This was appalling sexist twoddle so I go milk first but only if it's tea from a pot. It clearly doesn't work putting milk in first when making in a mug - cools the critical boiling water. But no butler would make tea in a mug so that's ok.

There is also some good science around potentially scolding milk going milk last which is what puncheur's post is covering indirectly.

Lady Gresley ... little pinky in the air I guess! ..

Tea all day for me. Yorkshire tea 😡
Place bag in mug, pour on boiling water, leave to stand for a few minutes, squeeze the teabag before removing from mug, add milk.

Don't squeeze!

It's either squeeze or 2 teabags 😀

Not met a man yet who likes tea more than Fathomer

About a year ago there was a tea expert on the radio and he said - the key is boiling water hitting the tea. So with tea bags its milk last but for a pot it doesn't matter.

2 teabags, rough cut rock of brown sugar, water, leave to brew for 5 mins, squeeze bags (but leave them in), splash of milk ...

Up north I often get away with a single bag, but darn sarf it has to be two as the water is shocking.

A properly stewed brew is the only way to start a cold winter's morning.

Good to know there's almost as much bollocks talked about making tea as there is about making coffee.

There are no rules, anybody tells you different is making it up.