Thursday, January 17, 2008
I don't drink coffee I take tea my dear
Yes, I am British.
Yes, I like a good cup of tea.
Yes, I prefer it to coffee.
However, Americans have some weird assumptions about our tea drinking habits. So as a small training session for the yanks amongst us, here are some tea facts about the British.
1. Firstly, by "tea" I mean black tea. In a tea bag. Not caramel tea, or green tea, or rosebud-dipped-in-scents tea, or anything else posh.
2. Teabags don't come in wooden presentation boxes. And they certainly shouldn't be wrapped individually! Do you slices of bread come wrapped one-by-one? Or your Rolos? Or your crisps? A whole load of teabags stuffed in a cardboard box, that's fine with me. Saves money, time and pompousness.
3. I take my tea with milk. Real, liquid milk. Not cream, not soya, and certainly not the "non-dairy powdered milk substitute" we have at work at the moment. When you can milk a cow and powder comes out, that's when it'll be suitable for tea.
4. Tea tastes better in a mug. If you sit inside Starbucks, drinking your drink from a paper cup, then you should try requesting a proper mug. However, I find they don't understand what "mug" means (apart from it being someone paying their prices), so I normally specify a "proper ceramic mug". it's also better for the environment, not to mention the taste.
5. A cup of tea is a normal sized cup/mug. Not a bucket. If you see someone drinking 64oz of coffee (Note to Brits: drinks here are in oz's, and 64oz is just under 2 litres, if my calculations are correct) then they need therapy, not coffee.
6. Drinks holders in cars are getting bigger. So are Americans. So am I. Tea should not be drunk while driving.
7. Tea is better for you than coffee.
Next: "iced tea"... don't get me started...!
Yes, I like a good cup of tea.
Yes, I prefer it to coffee.
However, Americans have some weird assumptions about our tea drinking habits. So as a small training session for the yanks amongst us, here are some tea facts about the British.
1. Firstly, by "tea" I mean black tea. In a tea bag. Not caramel tea, or green tea, or rosebud-dipped-in-scents tea, or anything else posh.
2. Teabags don't come in wooden presentation boxes. And they certainly shouldn't be wrapped individually! Do you slices of bread come wrapped one-by-one? Or your Rolos? Or your crisps? A whole load of teabags stuffed in a cardboard box, that's fine with me. Saves money, time and pompousness.
3. I take my tea with milk. Real, liquid milk. Not cream, not soya, and certainly not the "non-dairy powdered milk substitute" we have at work at the moment. When you can milk a cow and powder comes out, that's when it'll be suitable for tea.
4. Tea tastes better in a mug. If you sit inside Starbucks, drinking your drink from a paper cup, then you should try requesting a proper mug. However, I find they don't understand what "mug" means (apart from it being someone paying their prices), so I normally specify a "proper ceramic mug". it's also better for the environment, not to mention the taste.
5. A cup of tea is a normal sized cup/mug. Not a bucket. If you see someone drinking 64oz of coffee (Note to Brits: drinks here are in oz's, and 64oz is just under 2 litres, if my calculations are correct) then they need therapy, not coffee.
6. Drinks holders in cars are getting bigger. So are Americans. So am I. Tea should not be drunk while driving.
7. Tea is better for you than coffee.
Next: "iced tea"... don't get me started...!
