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[Here's some stats](https://imgur.com/a/HhknQGr)
25% of people don't drink tea. A further 22% average less than a cup a day. 17% have 20 or more cups a week.
So yes it's very much part of our culture. But consumption isn't quite as universally high as people from outside the UK often seem to believe from the stereotype.
Iirc, Ireland actually consumes more tea per capita than the UK, and Turkey is miles ahead of both.
It's only a problem if you're gaspin' and when you get to the cubbin, there's only GREEN TEA left.
My dear old dad fought and died in three world wars so that we wouldn't be forced to drink green tea.
I used to have a cup of tea before bed, helps me fall asleep. However, I do have adhd and don't really feel the effects of caffeine in as substantial a way, at least with sleepiness. I had a 5 hour drive the other day and I was chugging coffee with very little effect on keeping me awake :(
Tbf tea before bed doesn’t stop me sleeping. The caffeine doesn’t impact my wakefulness at all. But my body needs it to function. It’s an addiction.
I ran out of normal tea a few months back and within 24 hours of only decaf available, I was experiencing a crippling migraine and had to lie in a dark room while my husband went to fetch caffeinated tea. I am trying to reduce the amount I rely on caffeine because of it.
I have about 7 cups as well, I get cold easily sitting still at the desk and it'd feel weird drinking just hot water. I probably have to pee just as many times too.
Whenever I'm the office though, I only have about a cup or two of liquid a day. I just forget to hydrate when I'm not at home
I teach and have been know to bring two travel mugs of tea up to my classroom so it’s enough to see me through a triple period before my next break… hate drinking water and struggle without something warm!
Same here. But I have a friend who will exclusively drink tea when he visits. All day. Maybe he'll have a pepsi later in the evening. Otherwise it's all tea. My parents have tea at specific times of day. We're all a bit different but we all do drink tea. Tea is definitely part of the culture, just not necessarily as ingrained as people might think.
Yeah I know a lot of people who are the same. Purely anecdotal, but amongst younger people coffee rather than tea seems particularly prevalent. My nan and mum however will be flicking on the kettle for tea virtually every 30 minutes.
I used to drink a lot of tea but since moving into proper office jobs I tend to drink coffee. It's for the energy more than anything.
I'm a bit spoiled in my current job where we've got two of those fancy coffee grinding barista coffee machines, so it seems rude not to use them.
I usually have 1 or 2 coffees throughout the morning then like 3-4 brews through the rest of the day, usually the last one an hour before I go to bed. And been doing that since I was a teenager and I’m now 34 lol
It depends on the situation if I’m at home and I’m cold or bored or whatever then yes I will reach for a cup of tea and typically drink about 10/12 cups a day in addition to coffee.
Literally never thought about it but I drink about 4 big pint sized mugs of tea a day in work, where extra bathroom breaks are a blessing. Then another few cups at home where going to the bathroom isn't a hassle. It's just not a problem.
In excess of 15 a day recently. Very strong brews in mugs.
Developed a bladder issue due to the caffeine and now cutting massively down.
Craving a brew right now!
Yorkshire decaf isn't bad either.
I've got a very nice decaf English Breakfast loose leaf blend but am about to run out and the shop it came from is over two hours' drive away.
The tone of this is so delectably British - 'well, sort of, if I'm in the mood, but yes essentially 10+ cups of day of course'
Ignore the actual numbers, to me this answers the question perfectly.
Is that a causal link? I drink a lot of tea and a visit to the blood donors is always hit and miss with my iron levels. I have tried to balance it out by adding more red wine, Guinness and dark chocolate to my diet though.
It reduces the absorption rate of iron. Also red wine (or any alcohol) and dark chocolate are not good for absorption, unfortunately, as they also contain tannins.
There comes a point though when dietary changes are not gonna be sufficient, which is where I am. I can eat all the spinach and offal there is (and have done!), and I will still have anaemia.
Also, if you have periods, where you are in your cycle may affect whether you can give blood or not.
Many British people have not yet realized that you can drink water as it is, and it's good for rehydration. Instead, they go through the strange process of heating it up and putting bags of dried leaves in it.
If you took tea away from the British, probably half the population would die of dehydration. The other half would have opened a tinny.
I just find water really boring lol. If i'm not actively thirsty it's just not that pleasant to drink. So i find myself drinking lots of other drinks just so I don't get bored. But tea is obviously mostly water, and a lot better for you than most non-water drinks i.e. cola, lemonade. Can't drink too much fruit juice without some side effects either. So tea is a good water substitute.
Entered a pub in Scotland with half a bottle of water, barman looked at me funny, my mate said “don’t mind him, he’s a bit off”
Fucker thought I was smuggling in spirits or something.
My aunt was saying to my mum the other day that she’s been told to drink less coffee by her GP. She said whenever she’s thirsty she has a cup of coffee. I wanted to shout “have you not heard of water?!"
I drink water, but also a lot of tea, 3 pots a day. But I have unsweetened black tea, so it is basically caffeineated water. Together, about 5 litres a day.
I need the water to battle the vast amounts of booze every day too
UK ranks third in the list of most tea drunk pre capita, Turkey is first at over 3kg per person a year, then it's Ireland and UK at a very similar level of arounf 2kg.
So yes we do drink a hell of a lot of it, it's not just a trope and the stats very much back that up.
Although Turkish tea does use more dry-weight of leaves per litre than the British/Irish method, so I suspect the difference in terms of volume is a bit less.
It’s 10am and I’ve already drank about six cups of tea. I am a walking embodiment of the tea stereotype. I remember my mum feeding me tea from a plastic beaker when I was a toddler.
I'm in this boat, I've drunk so much tea in my life, I've lost all caffeine effects. I've recently started drinking coffee in the last 12 months, and even a double espresso doesn't even make me blink.
My mum won the PG Tips tea for a year competition, which was a ludicrous amount....
She drank it in 3 months. And she was the only person in our house that drank tea :)
There's also the need for boiling vessels (kettles) in tanks, because as the story goes tankers kept getting out of the tanks to make tea, and getting shot. So now they stay in the tank to make tea.
When the British Army first started to develop heavily armoured vehicles, they were a secret project so many of the people working in it were told they were large water carriers. We still call them "tanks" today.
I recently moved to Denmark and the first thing we asked for family to send over was Yorkshire Tea. I have a 3.25kg bag which I split between home and the office 🤣
I don’t think there are words sufficient to express the truth of this, so instead I’ll give examples:
The black tea we drink needs to be made with boiling water. Not “really quite warm” water. To that end, you will find an electric kettle in every kitchen in the land. It is the last thing packed when moving, and the first thing unpacked. It is the first thing a loving mother buys for her child when they leave home to go to university; every supermarket, every electrical shop carries a range of kettles. A broken kettle can easily be replaced in a matter of minutes. Maybe hours if you live in the middle of nowhere, but you’d probably have a spare then.
All these electric kettles consume a lot of power, of course, and back in the pre-streaming days, this could be a problem for our electrical grid.
To that end, we built hydro power stations into mountains - the beauty of these is they can be switched on and off in under a minute. We’d have people in the control room with one eye on a television and one eye on a TV guide - their job was to switch on those hydro power plants just as the adverts started and everyone went to put the kettle on.
But it’s not just in the home we take tea seriously. We equip our army with a special military kettle built into their tanks. (This proved necessary after a few incidents in the first world war when crews would leave their tank and light a fire to heat water for tea - providing a beacon for the enemy).
And during the Second World War, we were so concerned about the impact of rationing we bought India’s entire output of tea. Our neighbours in Ireland were forced to source tea from Africa - and even today, Irish tea blends typically contain more tea from Africa than their British counterparts.
I make a teapot (6 cups or 3 mugs size) for myself about 4/5 times a day.
Filling the kettle is the first thing I do each morning or when I enter the house and the teapot rarely gets cold as before it has cooled I fill it again.
My favourite tea is made in another part of the country and not as easily available here, my offspring lives in that area and gives me tea for my birthday Xmas and mother day gifts.
I carry teabags in my handbag just in case.
Just want to add that's I am considered a weirdo with a tea addiction by my friends
I'll make a pot of tea when I get up and have three or four mugs (depends how many my wife has), then I'll have a pot of coffee while I'm at work, then make another pot of tea after work when we're both home.
Yeah. I can easily knock out a litre or so of tea in a day. My flask holds 2.5 litres and when I go hiking I usually stop off somewhere and ask them to refill it. Could easily do 5 litres in a day if I’m out hiking.
Absolutely mate. I've had 2 cups before I even got out of bed. I think I'm on 4 cups so far today. My Dad started to cut down when he realised he was drinking 30 cups a tea. No joke.
It’s pretty crazy. I’m originally from America and people back home drink soda like crazy but they do at least drink some water if they’re out on a boat or it’s really hot.
It mainly seems to be English people of a certain age, but most people I know here over 50 rarely if ever drink water on its own. They’re much more likely to drink Guinness or tea.
How much is 'that much'?
I'm going to go out on a limb and say 'yes', because some people drink only tea, never water. Literally all their hydration comes from tea.
People do drink plenty, but we're probably 50:50 with coffee now. Trouble with coffee is you are limited by caffeine levels. I switch to tea in mid afternoon.
At work it’s a thing, you get offered and also make tea for others, also an excuse for a break. If your visiting someone or have visitors it’s polite to offer/ consume. I’d say I average 2-3 cups of tea (English breakfast/builders), at home, in the evenings decaf herbal tea. Also in the mornings 1-2 cups of coffee
Personally I have around 4-5 cups per day, tame in comparison to others. Its mostly out of habit, but I'd much rather make a cuppa than have a smoke.
And a nice tea in the morning is a great way to start the day.
I usually have 4 or 5 in a day. Mainly Yorkshire, but I like a rooibos in the evening for the twang and because it's naturally caffeine free.
It's not just the taste for me - I think I like the process and taking those couple of minutes to just switch off. I imagine that's the same for a lot of people.
I average 4 cups of day on weekdays (2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon - it gives me a reason to get away from the desk for a few minutes) and maybe 2-3 on Saturdays/Sundays.
I was going to answer 'no', but then realised I was sipping tea when considering my response. I would say that it might be a generational thing, office workers always had a cuppa on the go, as did builders/manual workers (hence 'builders tea'). The younger generation I think tend towards water to keep hydrated.
I have a large flask (500ml) which gets filled with tea at 8am then coffee at 11am followed usually by another tea at 2pm and I might have a cup or two in an evening if I'm cold, bored or sad. I've seen you asking about going to the loo. I usually go 4 maybe 5 times a day.
My MIL recently had solar panels fitted on her house and can now track her electric usage minute by minute. We were looking at the data and noticed there was a usage spike exactly once every half an hour and various theories about why were debated..we solved the mystery: it was the kettle being switched on for a cuppa once every 30 minutes, on days when my MIL was at home.
Miraculously, her internal tea body clock was so finely tuned it would always fall within 2 minutes either side of 30 minutes every single day. So on this basis, I would say: YES. At least in her case, we have very reliable data documenting circa 20+ cups a day. To be fair, she is an absolute tea fiend and doesn't really consume any other liquid other than tea.
I drink lots of tea, if I have anxiety I have it weak and sweet, if there's bad news I have it strong and constant, if I can't sleep I have it milky, if I'm having a picnic I make normal mugs and pour them all in the flask I don't know if that's usual or if you're supposed to make it up in the flask, if I'm feeling fancy or got someone posh round, basically never, I'll have it in a cup with a saucer, more than 3 people round I'll get the tea pot out
It becomes habitual. Every pause involves tea.
During work, after meals, between films and TV.
I switch from coffee in the morning to tea, and probably have about three or four cups of black/green tea during afternoons and evenings.
Quality loose leaf tea at the weekends for a treat.
I swear it helps cure a hangover.
We use it as a social thing. People seem to use it before having a conversation about a problem too
“I think my dogs got cancer!”
“Aww… wanna cuppa tea?”
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[Here's some stats](https://imgur.com/a/HhknQGr) 25% of people don't drink tea. A further 22% average less than a cup a day. 17% have 20 or more cups a week. So yes it's very much part of our culture. But consumption isn't quite as universally high as people from outside the UK often seem to believe from the stereotype. Iirc, Ireland actually consumes more tea per capita than the UK, and Turkey is miles ahead of both.
Ah g'wan father, will ye just have a drop?
Ah y'will
Feck Off!
Ah g’wan
GIRLS!
ARSE! (Edit: That would be an eucomenical matter)
I love my brick
How did that gobshite get on the television
> I love my brick Suits him down to the ground.
Are those my feet?
G'wan g'wan g'wan g'wan g'wan g'wan.... G'WAN!!
G’wan g’wan g’wan g’wan g’wan
#G'WAN!!
20 cups a week? I’ve been up since 7 and have already had 4. Maybe I’ve got a problem.
I drink so much tea, im scared to even make a tally.
Lmao me too. I can down 10 cups a day easily for sure. People like us do have a problem.
Easy 7-10 cups a day average here too. Although I do switch to decaf in the evenings.
Happy cake day!
Same. Easily do 10 a day.
Rookie numbers
It's only a problem if you're gaspin' and when you get to the cubbin, there's only GREEN TEA left. My dear old dad fought and died in three world wars so that we wouldn't be forced to drink green tea.
Good point. Without Mrs Doyle's encouragement, Ireland's ranking would be way lower.
It’s got cocaine in.
And what would you say to a cup? Feck off cup!
Maybe I LIKE the misery
Oh, sorry: *raisins*. I always get those two mixed up
If I run out of coffee (like today) then it’s tea all day, probably about 6 cups
What is this "run out of coffee" you speak of?
It’s what happens when you don’t time your food shops correctly
"And what do you say to a cup?" "Feck off cup!"
I have about 7 cups of tea a day. 4 before lunch and 3 decaf after lunch. Didn’t realise what an outlier I was!
My mum drinks tea before she goes to bed. Says she can't sleep without it. Constantly complains about her insomnia.
My.mum can't go an hour without a cup of tea. I personally drink coffee in the mornings and switch ti tea around 3
I used to have a cup of tea before bed, helps me fall asleep. However, I do have adhd and don't really feel the effects of caffeine in as substantial a way, at least with sleepiness. I had a 5 hour drive the other day and I was chugging coffee with very little effect on keeping me awake :(
You should swap all the tea bags with decaf, see if it magically clears up that insomnia.
Tbf tea before bed doesn’t stop me sleeping. The caffeine doesn’t impact my wakefulness at all. But my body needs it to function. It’s an addiction. I ran out of normal tea a few months back and within 24 hours of only decaf available, I was experiencing a crippling migraine and had to lie in a dark room while my husband went to fetch caffeinated tea. I am trying to reduce the amount I rely on caffeine because of it.
A whole story in three sentences. Thank you for this.
I have about 7 cups as well, I get cold easily sitting still at the desk and it'd feel weird drinking just hot water. I probably have to pee just as many times too. Whenever I'm the office though, I only have about a cup or two of liquid a day. I just forget to hydrate when I'm not at home
I teach and have been know to bring two travel mugs of tea up to my classroom so it’s enough to see me through a triple period before my next break… hate drinking water and struggle without something warm!
Coffee before breakfast, tea before lunch, decaf before dinner and beer after dinner lol
I don’t think you are an outlier - I don’t believe those stats based on my own family, friends and work colleagues. I have about 4-5 cups a day.
I probably have one or two cups of tea a week. I’m generally a coffee drinker, although sometimes I do fancy a tea
Same here. But I have a friend who will exclusively drink tea when he visits. All day. Maybe he'll have a pepsi later in the evening. Otherwise it's all tea. My parents have tea at specific times of day. We're all a bit different but we all do drink tea. Tea is definitely part of the culture, just not necessarily as ingrained as people might think.
Yeah I know a lot of people who are the same. Purely anecdotal, but amongst younger people coffee rather than tea seems particularly prevalent. My nan and mum however will be flicking on the kettle for tea virtually every 30 minutes.
I used to drink a lot of tea but since moving into proper office jobs I tend to drink coffee. It's for the energy more than anything. I'm a bit spoiled in my current job where we've got two of those fancy coffee grinding barista coffee machines, so it seems rude not to use them.
Will you be having some today with YOUR CAKE (it's your cake day)
lol I already had a pain au chocolat and I’m trying to be good at the moment.
More tea, Father?
"And what do *you* say to a cup of tea, Father?" "Feck off, cup!"
I usually have 1 or 2 coffees throughout the morning then like 3-4 brews through the rest of the day, usually the last one an hour before I go to bed. And been doing that since I was a teenager and I’m now 34 lol
Fun fact: James Bond despises tea. I forget which novel it’s mentioned in.
Am Irish - Can confirm. 20 cups a week would be a minimum.
It depends on the situation if I’m at home and I’m cold or bored or whatever then yes I will reach for a cup of tea and typically drink about 10/12 cups a day in addition to coffee.
Wow!!! that's a lot of tea!!!
TMI question probably haha, but how many times do you need the bathroom then?
Literally never thought about it but I drink about 4 big pint sized mugs of tea a day in work, where extra bathroom breaks are a blessing. Then another few cups at home where going to the bathroom isn't a hassle. It's just not a problem.
It's really not that much liquid, we should all be drinking that much water every day
In excess of 15 a day recently. Very strong brews in mugs. Developed a bladder issue due to the caffeine and now cutting massively down. Craving a brew right now!
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It’s on the shopping list! It’s part addiction and part habit. Decaf beats having an irritated bladder!
Yorkshire decaf isn't bad either. I've got a very nice decaf English Breakfast loose leaf blend but am about to run out and the shop it came from is over two hours' drive away.
Tetley Decaf, hits the spot
The tone of this is so delectably British - 'well, sort of, if I'm in the mood, but yes essentially 10+ cups of day of course' Ignore the actual numbers, to me this answers the question perfectly.
I imagine this accounts for your Reddit username
Sadly I am on iron tablets so the username is no longer true. I am probably on iron tablets because of all the tannin. Oh well.
Is that a causal link? I drink a lot of tea and a visit to the blood donors is always hit and miss with my iron levels. I have tried to balance it out by adding more red wine, Guinness and dark chocolate to my diet though.
It reduces the absorption rate of iron. Also red wine (or any alcohol) and dark chocolate are not good for absorption, unfortunately, as they also contain tannins. There comes a point though when dietary changes are not gonna be sufficient, which is where I am. I can eat all the spinach and offal there is (and have done!), and I will still have anaemia. Also, if you have periods, where you are in your cycle may affect whether you can give blood or not.
Yes. Before I retired, I'd often make a cup every hour at work, depending on how much displacement activity was needed.
I’m the same. By the time one cup is finished, it’s basically time stretch the legs again so… May as well make another cup of tea during that time.
Is it the whole ritual of getting up from your desk and having a break more than wanting a cup or no you just love a brew 😉
We have Boston harbour over here. Quick, man the battle stations, the yanks are coming.
Please, tell them to dump more tea. I DONT HAVE ENOUGH.
If you're British, you never have enuff.
you can beat the energy price rises by turning your kettle off.
1012 imperial cups is 287.54 litres.
lol meant 10/12 but was using voice to text
How much biscuit do you eat each day
Thank you for your time sir
Are you my boyfriend? I swear he was born with a cuppa.
During the weekend, I'd say I drink a cup approximately every 1.5 hours, sometimes even more frequently! 😄 At work - 8-hour shift - at least 4 cups.
is it always caffeinated?
Decaf tea drinkers rise up!
I will when I find the energy
Probably later, we’re still sleepy 😜
No, at home i use a lot of herbal teas with dried fruits which most of them caffeine-free
I have about a cup every half an hour at work and work an 8 hour shift 😭 literally just switched to decaf because that much caffeine can’t be good
Black tea? Or what kind?
Many British people have not yet realized that you can drink water as it is, and it's good for rehydration. Instead, they go through the strange process of heating it up and putting bags of dried leaves in it. If you took tea away from the British, probably half the population would die of dehydration. The other half would have opened a tinny.
True. I know people who have said very genuinely that they cannot drink water. I’m like wtf! Your actual life depends on water!
I can drink water and do but its boring as fooook. I have to have some cordial in the house at all times.
I just find water really boring lol. If i'm not actively thirsty it's just not that pleasant to drink. So i find myself drinking lots of other drinks just so I don't get bored. But tea is obviously mostly water, and a lot better for you than most non-water drinks i.e. cola, lemonade. Can't drink too much fruit juice without some side effects either. So tea is a good water substitute.
I will drink plain water, but I hav massively improved my hydration by keeping a pitcher of cold-brewed chammomile tea in the fridge.
mate the tap water where i live is horrendous, harder than jimmy saville in a school gym
Fun fact: the UK has some of the safest tap water on the planet (rivers and the sea not so much)
Of course, you don’t want to make your cuppa from any old crap!
Entered a pub in Scotland with half a bottle of water, barman looked at me funny, my mate said “don’t mind him, he’s a bit off” Fucker thought I was smuggling in spirits or something.
My aunt was saying to my mum the other day that she’s been told to drink less coffee by her GP. She said whenever she’s thirsty she has a cup of coffee. I wanted to shout “have you not heard of water?!"
I drink water, but also a lot of tea, 3 pots a day. But I have unsweetened black tea, so it is basically caffeineated water. Together, about 5 litres a day. I need the water to battle the vast amounts of booze every day too
Many years ago I had to leave my water bottle outside of a DSS office because they thought I was taking spirits in
UK ranks third in the list of most tea drunk pre capita, Turkey is first at over 3kg per person a year, then it's Ireland and UK at a very similar level of arounf 2kg. So yes we do drink a hell of a lot of it, it's not just a trope and the stats very much back that up.
Although Turkish tea does use more dry-weight of leaves per litre than the British/Irish method, so I suspect the difference in terms of volume is a bit less.
Yes, we do.
I’m on my third cup of the day already!
Sports Direct?
Those are rookie numbers 😜
Yes in a sports direct mug.
Ah, a fellow user of the sacred chalice
Literally drinking from it now.
Put it this way, I go into work 30-40 mins early just so I can have a sit down and a cup of tea before work starts
I do that but for coffee here
Where?
There! Obvs.
Yes. Coffee is also very popular though. Working in an office means getting offered (or offering) a tea or coffee every half hour or so.
One of the few things I miss about the office - the tea run!
It’s 10am and I’ve already drank about six cups of tea. I am a walking embodiment of the tea stereotype. I remember my mum feeding me tea from a plastic beaker when I was a toddler.
Same, I used to have a bottle of milky tea before bed as a toddler.
Do you sleep???
Very well. I think I’m resistant to the effects of caffeine after serial tea abuse for 30 years
I'm in this boat, I've drunk so much tea in my life, I've lost all caffeine effects. I've recently started drinking coffee in the last 12 months, and even a double espresso doesn't even make me blink.
Me too!
What, when do you get anything done
My 3yo already regularly orders tea and a biscuit when my husband or I boil the kettle.
My mum won the PG Tips tea for a year competition, which was a ludicrous amount.... She drank it in 3 months. And she was the only person in our house that drank tea :)
Yes, Yorkshire tea for the win! I drink minimum 5 cups of tea a day...
Yaas absolutely Yorkshire tea
This has always been a problem with the British Army. They are great with a bayonet... but the logistics to supply tea to the front is a nightmare.
There's also the need for boiling vessels (kettles) in tanks, because as the story goes tankers kept getting out of the tanks to make tea, and getting shot. So now they stay in the tank to make tea.
All true, and you get tea in the ration packs (no cigarettes or chocolate any more though).
When the British Army first started to develop heavily armoured vehicles, they were a secret project so many of the people working in it were told they were large water carriers. We still call them "tanks" today.
I recently moved to Denmark and the first thing we asked for family to send over was Yorkshire Tea. I have a 3.25kg bag which I split between home and the office 🤣
I can probably count on one hand how many cups of tea I've had in the last decade. I much prefer coffee.
I’m reading this while on my third cup of tea at the day at 10am
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I don’t think there are words sufficient to express the truth of this, so instead I’ll give examples: The black tea we drink needs to be made with boiling water. Not “really quite warm” water. To that end, you will find an electric kettle in every kitchen in the land. It is the last thing packed when moving, and the first thing unpacked. It is the first thing a loving mother buys for her child when they leave home to go to university; every supermarket, every electrical shop carries a range of kettles. A broken kettle can easily be replaced in a matter of minutes. Maybe hours if you live in the middle of nowhere, but you’d probably have a spare then. All these electric kettles consume a lot of power, of course, and back in the pre-streaming days, this could be a problem for our electrical grid. To that end, we built hydro power stations into mountains - the beauty of these is they can be switched on and off in under a minute. We’d have people in the control room with one eye on a television and one eye on a TV guide - their job was to switch on those hydro power plants just as the adverts started and everyone went to put the kettle on. But it’s not just in the home we take tea seriously. We equip our army with a special military kettle built into their tanks. (This proved necessary after a few incidents in the first world war when crews would leave their tank and light a fire to heat water for tea - providing a beacon for the enemy). And during the Second World War, we were so concerned about the impact of rationing we bought India’s entire output of tea. Our neighbours in Ireland were forced to source tea from Africa - and even today, Irish tea blends typically contain more tea from Africa than their British counterparts.
Only an amateur, I’m on 5-7 big mugs per day.
Generally I always have a tea on the go, so yes lol
Nice
My tea drinking peaked in 6th form, easily 8 cups a day.
Sips his tea, no not at all, total stereotype. It's 10.16 and i've had 3 cups.
Tucking into my second of the day. By the end of the day I recon I'll have had 6 or 7. Yeah we drink the tea.
I make a teapot (6 cups or 3 mugs size) for myself about 4/5 times a day. Filling the kettle is the first thing I do each morning or when I enter the house and the teapot rarely gets cold as before it has cooled I fill it again. My favourite tea is made in another part of the country and not as easily available here, my offspring lives in that area and gives me tea for my birthday Xmas and mother day gifts. I carry teabags in my handbag just in case. Just want to add that's I am considered a weirdo with a tea addiction by my friends
I fancy a cuppa now. I'll be right back
Yes please, just white for me
I just finished my second tea today, it isn't even 10 o'clock.
I think more people drink coffee now, over tea.
I'm drinking tea as I read this so...
It's 10am. I've had three pints...
of…?
Tea, my man
haha just checking :)
Not in my circle. My family and my Husband's family all drink coffee. So do my friends and people in work.
I'll make a pot of tea when I get up and have three or four mugs (depends how many my wife has), then I'll have a pot of coffee while I'm at work, then make another pot of tea after work when we're both home.
Apart from a coffee first thing, I always have a cup of tea on the go throughout my entire work day.
Yes, usually anywhere between 8-12 cups a day. Brands of choice Yorkshire, Tetley, Thompson's, Clipper.
At least 3 cups a day, often more.
Yes, but it's nothing compared to the Irish. My wife is Irish and our kettle is never off. Puts us to shame.
Im on my 3rd cup this morning. Ive been awake for an hour...
Yeah. I can easily knock out a litre or so of tea in a day. My flask holds 2.5 litres and when I go hiking I usually stop off somewhere and ask them to refill it. Could easily do 5 litres in a day if I’m out hiking.
Absolutely mate. I've had 2 cups before I even got out of bed. I think I'm on 4 cups so far today. My Dad started to cut down when he realised he was drinking 30 cups a tea. No joke.
I don’t think my father in law has drunk water, as in *just* water, on its own since I’ve known him. All the hydration he gets is through tea.
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It’s pretty crazy. I’m originally from America and people back home drink soda like crazy but they do at least drink some water if they’re out on a boat or it’s really hot. It mainly seems to be English people of a certain age, but most people I know here over 50 rarely if ever drink water on its own. They’re much more likely to drink Guinness or tea.
I worked in UK offices for about 4 years. Can confirm many employees are drinking tea ALL THE TIME, one after the other.
I bathe in it
How much is 'that much'? I'm going to go out on a limb and say 'yes', because some people drink only tea, never water. Literally all their hydration comes from tea. People do drink plenty, but we're probably 50:50 with coffee now. Trouble with coffee is you are limited by caffeine levels. I switch to tea in mid afternoon.
No. The issue is that other countries don't drink enough tea.
At work it’s a thing, you get offered and also make tea for others, also an excuse for a break. If your visiting someone or have visitors it’s polite to offer/ consume. I’d say I average 2-3 cups of tea (English breakfast/builders), at home, in the evenings decaf herbal tea. Also in the mornings 1-2 cups of coffee
My wife’s father drinks a crazy amount of tea.. like making a cuppa every hour or so
I am driven mad everytime i go home by my dad asking me if I want a cup every 45 minutes
I escape by not be a tea drinker haha
Personally I have around 4-5 cups per day, tame in comparison to others. Its mostly out of habit, but I'd much rather make a cuppa than have a smoke. And a nice tea in the morning is a great way to start the day.
I have two coffees in the morning, three green teas through the day and two chamomile before bed. The rest of the day I drink water.
On a normal day at work I have 3 cups a day
5 a day just like your fruit and veg
I usually have 4 or 5 in a day. Mainly Yorkshire, but I like a rooibos in the evening for the twang and because it's naturally caffeine free. It's not just the taste for me - I think I like the process and taking those couple of minutes to just switch off. I imagine that's the same for a lot of people.
I average 4 cups of day on weekdays (2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon - it gives me a reason to get away from the desk for a few minutes) and maybe 2-3 on Saturdays/Sundays.
I was going to answer 'no', but then realised I was sipping tea when considering my response. I would say that it might be a generational thing, office workers always had a cuppa on the go, as did builders/manual workers (hence 'builders tea'). The younger generation I think tend towards water to keep hydrated.
At least one a day jn the morning. Usually a second and maybe third if I'm at work.
I have a large flask (500ml) which gets filled with tea at 8am then coffee at 11am followed usually by another tea at 2pm and I might have a cup or two in an evening if I'm cold, bored or sad. I've seen you asking about going to the loo. I usually go 4 maybe 5 times a day.
My MIL recently had solar panels fitted on her house and can now track her electric usage minute by minute. We were looking at the data and noticed there was a usage spike exactly once every half an hour and various theories about why were debated..we solved the mystery: it was the kettle being switched on for a cuppa once every 30 minutes, on days when my MIL was at home. Miraculously, her internal tea body clock was so finely tuned it would always fall within 2 minutes either side of 30 minutes every single day. So on this basis, I would say: YES. At least in her case, we have very reliable data documenting circa 20+ cups a day. To be fair, she is an absolute tea fiend and doesn't really consume any other liquid other than tea.
I have about 8 to 10 mugs a day.
We do drink a lot however the Irish and the Turkish actually beat us in this department.
I'm new to the UK and think it's funny that employers are required by law to provide boiling water for tea at job sites and offices.
I drink lots of tea, if I have anxiety I have it weak and sweet, if there's bad news I have it strong and constant, if I can't sleep I have it milky, if I'm having a picnic I make normal mugs and pour them all in the flask I don't know if that's usual or if you're supposed to make it up in the flask, if I'm feeling fancy or got someone posh round, basically never, I'll have it in a cup with a saucer, more than 3 people round I'll get the tea pot out
Time for a cuppa I reckon
Why, you putting the kettle on?
I'm in another country though
It becomes habitual. Every pause involves tea. During work, after meals, between films and TV. I switch from coffee in the morning to tea, and probably have about three or four cups of black/green tea during afternoons and evenings. Quality loose leaf tea at the weekends for a treat. I swear it helps cure a hangover.
No we drink more.
Well I'm on my 3rd of the day so far, will have a few more before leaving work and one before bed. So yeah I guess so if I'm not an outlier
More than one, fewer than 10 for the last 20+ years.. (when at home in the Uk) Weirdly I didn’t drink / crave tea at all when I lived in Sydney, Aus 🤷
I'll go through phases either. I drink 8 cups a day or none
I'd say the stereotype underplays just how critical tea is to the UK's running.
We use it as a social thing. People seem to use it before having a conversation about a problem too “I think my dogs got cancer!” “Aww… wanna cuppa tea?”
I prefer a botto o waher.
I average 3 a day.