I’m leaving my coffee days behind and going strictly to tea drinking. Anyone tell me the accepted English ritual? Milk first or last etc. etc.? Ta, pip pip and all that, eh?
However they dam well please though seriously do use a tea kettle.
Most people just pour boiling water over a teabag, swirl it about a bit, take it out and then add milk. Other might use a pot and chuck a few teabags in it. But they are all very wrong… Heat pot for a couple of minutes with boiling water, then pour it out. Add the right amount of leaves Add boiling water Leave for the correct time for the tea (time it, no guessing!) Pour tea over the milk in a heated cup Repeat hourly Cake or biscuits are optional If you can find Mrs Beeton’s Household Management anywhere that should be definitive.
Found it! TO MAKE TEA. 1814. There is very little art in making good tea; if the water is boiling, and there is no sparing of the fragrant leaf, the beverage will almost invariably be good. The old-fashioned plan of allowing a teaspoonful to each person, and one over, is still practised. Warm the teapot with boiling water; let it remain for two or three minutes for the vessel to become thoroughly hot, then pour it away. Put in the tea, pour in from 1/2 to 3/4 pint of boiling water, close the lid, and let it stand for the tea to draw from 5 to 10 minutes; then fill up the pot with water. The tea will be quite spoiled unless made with water that is actually ‘boiling’, as the leaves will not open, and the flavour not be extracted from them; the beverage will consequently be colourless and tasteless,—in fact, nothing but tepid water. Where there is a very large party to make tea for, it is a good plan to have two teapots instead of putting a large quantity of tea into one pot; the tea, besides, will go farther. When the infusion has been once completed, the addition of fresh tea adds very little to the strength; so, when more is required, have the pot emptied of the old leaves, scalded, and fresh tea made in the usual manner. Economists say that a few grains of carbonate of soda, added before the boiling water is poured on the tea, assist to draw out the goodness: if the water is very hard, perhaps it is a good plan, as the soda softens it; but care must be taken to use this ingredient sparingly, as it is liable to give the tea a soapy taste if added in too large a quantity. For mixed tea, the usual proportion is four spoonfuls of black to one of green; more of the latter when the flavour is very much liked; but strong green tea is highly pernicious, and should never be partaken of too freely. Time.—2 minutes to warm the teapot, 5 to 10 minutes to draw the strength from the tea. Sufficient.—Allow 1 teaspoonful to each person, and one over. Okay, maybe that isn’t actually how anyone makes tea any more, I think that is a bit like the Russian way.
Adding milk in tea, as usually drunk in Britain, is a custom adopted from India. In India, however, they blame milk in tea on the British owned Indian Tea Association that fostered consumption of Indian grown tea in India to boost revenue. Whoever is responsible it is customary in both India and Britain to add milk to tea. In India its called ‘chai’. The word for milk with tea in Britain is a corruption of ‘chai’ - ‘char’. (Alternatively you could just whack a teabag in a cup and pour on boiling water.) To make a cup of British char using Indian tea - Boil fresh water Warm the teapot with a little of the boiled water Empty teapot of water Add to teapot one teaspoon of tea for each person and one for the pot Add the water and stir Leave for three minutes Strain and serve Add milk or cream and sugar if required The Indian version(s) contains varied spices such as cloves and ginger and includes equal amounts of water and hot milk.
The correct way is with loose tea, but they sell a hell of a lot of PG Tips and Yorkshire in bags, so not everyone does it correctly. English tea bags don’t have strings like American ones, but they make infusers, sort of like tongs made to hold tea bags. If you want to make your guests think you did it the right way just drop a piece of tea leaf into each cup.
Thanks a lot all of you. Neat stuff, I particularly like the Mrs. Beeton recipe, I pretty much do it that way already. As to right ritual for drinking, is there any consensus on milk and sugar before tea in the cup or after? And notice I said cup not mug, perish the thought. And, I always use loose tea, and will continue to do so because that’s just the right way.
I find the tea bag flavours the tea in a most disagreeable way. Drank killer coffee black for donkey’s years, but with black tea, I just plain need the milk and sugar. Green I use a Yiking pot and drink it straight, of course. My fav blacks are a Ceylon which I use on it’s own or as a basis for a well-spiced chai, russian caravan, lapsang suchong and assam. I will try her method of a little water to draw the tea before filling the pot. That sounds intriguing.
Milk first in cup, then tea. There’s scientific evidence that’s the best way to have milky tea. Personally I also like raspberry jam as sweetener in black tea, this might be Russian custom.
At the risk of appearing disagreeable, I can only offer my opinion that adding milk first is, nowadays, little more than a ludicrous affectation. In the days when milk was rationed and spoons had been melted down for Spitfires, it was a reasonable modification of the protocol, but now tea should be usually be served without any addition whatever, leaving guests free to add milk, lemon or sugar as they please. This stands even in informal situations where the host has sought and been granted the title of ‘mother’, a title which only confers pouring rights and dominion over the cosy. The corruption of the word ‘chai’ is a possible derivation of ‘char’, but it seems more closely related to the Mandarin chinese word for tea, which is ‘cha’. The Oxford English Dictionary helpfully offers Chinese, Hindustani and Russian as possible sources. But the first use of the word they give is from 1616 which doesn’t rule out an Indian origin, but makes it unlikely. The colloquial expression ‘all the tea in China’ and the use of the word ‘china’ to mean porcelain, suggest China as the more probable origin, as does the botanical history of the plant itself. I do agree that green tea is pernicious, and find it worse than cheese for nightmares.
Green tea is actualy the opposite of pernicious it’s extremely good for your health.
Hardly anyone drinks it black. Purism aside, most of us use boiling water from a kettle onto ordinary domestic blends like Yorkshire, PG or Tetley and add some milk and/or sugar to taste. The key is boiling water which is why most Brits don’t get on with Liptons and hot water as you get in the US. And absolutely no one uses Liptons. Of course there is a sub-set of Earl Grey and various exotic tea drinkers, but in every cafe, with every bacon sandwhich and umpteen times throughout the day its drunk as above. Most Brits never touch green tea from one year to the next. Snuffster. London Bobby (speciality:telling you how to get to Lie-cestershire Square or Windsor Palace (next to Buckingham Castle on Big Ben Street) )
This is all very strange. I havent seen a teapot in years. If we are all so precise about making tea , who the hell is buying all the tea bags? Get a good strong teabag like Yorkshire. Put bread in the toaster. Boil water and pour it on the teabag, leaving about an inch for milk etc. Stir the teabag until tea looks strong enough and remove teabag. The toast is now smoking. Hit the lever on the side of the toaster and catch the hot toast as it springs out. Put your burnt fingers under the cold water tap until the pain eases.Spread butter on toast and pick up marmalade jar. Screw top is jammed. Give up on the idea of toast and marmalade. Add milk and sugar to taste. Use tea to wash down toast. Head out of front door. Ring door bell to get back into house. Find keys and leave house again. Bus queue is impressively long as some dick head has decided to dig up road without telling bus company. Eventually get to tube station and find that there is a delay due to an electrical problem. Finally arrive near to work only to find that the bomb squad have cordoned off the area due to a suspect package. Package is blown up just as some poor sod arrives to see the remains of his laptop fly through the air. Afore mentioned poor sod explains that he put his laptop bag down to answer his cellphone and forgot to pick it up. No sympathy from crowd. Poor sod legs it. Everyone is late except the boss who makes sarcastic remarks and pisses everyone off. Boss hides in toilet until it is safe to come out. And you think we have time to make tea al la Mrs Beaton.Fat chance. Welcome to London.
LMAO priceless London Jack. Where abouts in the capital are you? As for me, I just put a tea bag in cup or extremely large mug (so I don’t have to make another trip to the kettle), pour boiling water into said cup or mug, stir and strain then add milk. Stir and strain against side again till desired strength (I like mine strong enough to stand a spoon in it. Ironically, around the same colour as an Indian chap.) Chuck tea bag in bin, milk in fridge, no sugar; I’m sweet enough ;-). On a side note, milk was only placed in cups first to stop china cups from cracking. Happened to me once or twice actually. Most china now days doesn’t have this problem. Take care chaps. Jonathan.
As one who could be accused of a variety of ludicrous affectations, including the arcane and anachronistic use of nasal snuff, I shall happily continue with my lovely new-found tea ritual. Thanks all. Nice china pot, antique of course, bone china cups. milk and sugar first, loose tea first drawn a la Mrs. Beeton, boiling water out of a copper kettle, good to go. What a wonderful, healthy, tasty way to say good morning to this delightful world we live in. Cheers.
It doesn’t matter how you make tea, it’s still emasculating when compared to coffee. Pause, wait for it? I’m expecting an onslaught of negativity based on this remark, but I’m just playing. I tried to kick coffee using tea a few years ago, but even if I had tea, the caffeine headaches would still come in the afternoon. So, now I have one big cup of french press every day and that’s it.
I’m down with emasculation. I’ll admit at home (where the wife lives) I drink tea. I use a much more streamlined technique then all of you all. I fill a mug with water then throw a tea bag in, shove it in the microwave…done! I don’t even take the bag out most of the time. Rarely I use honey or agave nectar, even more rare milk. The tea? Whatever cheap crap is selling at Ross or the dollar store, mostly green tea stuff. I have been inspired by this forum to get into “real” tea and my wife is always encouraging me in that direction (she must think I’m a Brit) but if I’m going to put any effort in it will likely be in the direction of coffee.
Its only popuar culture that Brits “own” tea. The Irish drink more (sadly mostly the milky British way) and the East Frisian Islanders drink the most in the world. Dutch, Germans, Danes, French, Poles, Russians, etc, all have great tea cultures which are sadly usually forgotten in our Anglo biased society. Then the East! Wow! So much tea culture in Asia… one can barely find the time to experience them all. China, Tawain, Japan, Thailand, India/Pakistan…the central Asian cultures, the Arabian cultures, which leads to Moroccan, Egyptian and eventually Turkish, and by then you are back in Europe. Coffee, Yerba Mate, Rooibos, Cocoa, are all good from time to time, but tea is forever with me!
@wildwilliam: dump the copper kettle in the dust bin. Copper is not good for you. Apologies to all the coppers on the forum.
@TC2642: Also I would say the figures are biased. “United Kingdom” includes Northern Ireland so that region cound go either way, and add to one “culture” and subtract from the other. Region can be more precice than nation in these statistics. Which is why I brought up the East Frisian islanders. The Dutch know the West Frisian islands and the mainland of Friesland. It is its own provice with its own language. The Danes and Germans also know the North Frisian Islands, part of which still displays a unique culture, but no nation of its own. The east Frisians are within Germany, but you can read about them in the link above. The Turks consume plenty of proper tea. My own recollection of my visits there and the source cited in you wikipedia article indicate they drink plenty of straight black tea. True, Germans and French take more coffee in general, but that’s not the point. Each has a unique tea culture (totally independent of coffee culture) that is largely forgotton by most North American marketing firms who think by associating tea with Britian, it makes it somehow better and more marketable. I’m not sure if that’s boomeranged over there or vice versa, but I’ve experienced a possesive attitude towards tea from some English people. This belief is perpetuated by popular culture is this country, so keep in mind 90% of Americans are ill-informed (or uninformed) on most things, tea notwithstanding. The nearest place to get a decent cup of tea served to me is actually named “Flavour of Britian” and they sell good tea in tins as well. However, they seem to think that having a good cup of tea requires a lot of frills and pomposity. Well, I guess that’s what you pay for when you go there. We have a new place opened recently, but I have not checked it out yet. On a final note, my personal tea consumption exceeds even the Turkish average! No frills here, mind you!