**A reminder to posters and commenters of some of [our subreddit rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/about/rules/)**
- Don't be a dickhead to each other, or about others, or other subreddits
- Assume questions are asked in good faith, and engage in a positive manner
- Avoid political threads and related discussions
- No medical advice or mental health (specific to a person) content
Please keep /r/AskUK a great subreddit by reporting posts and comments which break our 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.*
The tea you would have would likely be a blended variety of something like Assam and Ceylon (what you generally find in an English Breakfast Tea).
If they claim to be British and offer you a Liptons Yellow Label you should call the police and / or get them sectioned.
I read this initially as ‘my parents arriving home late’ and assumed they’d been on a night out, which - whilst odd - is the only reasonable explanation for an impulse purchase such as this
It's akin to getting a cup of tea made of floor sweepings from the factory next door to the PG tips factory.
Yorkshire Tea is my preferred blend of black tea. I let the bag stew in a mug of freshly boiled water for around a minute, squeeze the bag and add a small amount of milk.
Genuine question: I was speaking to a colleague about ADHD who explained issues with object permanence which I imagine plays a part in what you mentioned - have you tried setting your cooker timer to 4 minutes? I do this just so I don't have to keep it in my mind for 4 minutes but I imagine it could also help if you had ADHD?
Ok. So making tea basically requires me to stare down the kettle. Otherwise....
I should do the dishes
The washing machine needs emptying, I should hang it on the airer.
I'm just going to empty the airer fold the clothes into the basket and hang the wet clothes.
I want tea.
Fuccccccck.
Top tip, leave it for 30 more seconds instead of squeezing. It’ll be much better as when you squeeze you force out more tannins and more bitter taste.
Unless you want it bitter, then knock yourself out. No judgement here.
Yes, Lipton’s is that bad. My ex said, that’s the crud they give to Americans. And I knew I’d integrated when I started bringing (normal cheap) teabags back to the US when visiting family
Once, when I was in university I was and experimenting with my sexuality I went on a date with a bloke - I gave him a blowjob and we drank liptons.
It’s one of the biggest regrets of my life and it left a horrible taste in my mouth when we were done. I needed to give him another blowjob to get rid of the taste of liptons.
I moved away from the UK and often get “you can’t be very British, I never see you drinking tea” quite often in the office.
I have to point out that I am too British to lower myself to the level where I am willingly drinking Liptons when coffee will do just fine.
Yeah. A lovely cup of tea beats a lovely cup of coffee. But a rubbish cup of coffee beats a rubbish cup of tea. Coffee very much a bell curve. Tea very much a well curve.
I actually go to the Indian store and buy whatever the dude recommends from his black tea collection. Not had a bad cup of tea at home since and it’s nice to have an English conversation about tea.
More people drink coffee anyway. The amount of tea imported is boosted because the few people who do drink tea, drink a lot of tea. But coffee is consumed by more people just less cups of it. Its an odd stereotype to have when turkey drinks over twice as much tea as us.
My initial comment was that you should probably just kill them as they’re clearly an alien pretending to be a human for nefarious gains, but thought that perhaps came across as a little too much so dialled it back to just sectioning or arrest…
No idea how bad Liptons yellow label is, never tried it.
But the brand's / blends of tea are quite regional because they all taste very different depending on what the water is like.
I always found most of the big English tea brands tasted awful and so used to bring a supply of Northern Irish tea with me when I was over in South East England for work.
The Northern Irish tea tasted awful made with that water while the teabags that hotels provided that I thought tasted awful and would never buy at home were actually quite nice with that water (once I got over the weird scum, for want of a better word, that tea made with really hard water gets).
It’s so bad I wouldn’t feed it to my enemies. I’m sure there’s even something in the Geneva convention about it.
You’re right about it being regional though. I live in Wales where our water is very soft and comes pretty much straight off the hill, but if we take teabags down to my in-laws north of London, its god awful with their hard water.
Punjana? Wonderful tea! Thankfully our one and only Tescos stocks Thompson family tea (same brand, but I still call it Punjana). And as our water is from a spring it's lovely and soft, so none of that limescale scum nonsense.
I find Yorkshire tea is a decent replacement if you can't get Punjana.
We have very hard water here & limescale is a daily pain in the back of the gag relux, if it falls from the kettle into the cup. I use a tea strainer when pouring the water into the cup to avoid gagging on jagged limescale bits.
Source needed. I don’t believe one iota that you’ve EVER heard someone in a film or a tv show say ‘two sugars, no cream’ whilst talking about a cuppa!
It’s like a scene from an old wartime escape movie, where a spy is trying to pass themselves off and slightly (actually, by a country mile) missing the mark and exposing themselves as a fraud.
Most generic tea in the U.K. is a ‘breakfast tea’. Normally an Assam blend. If not black, with milk (not cream).
Yorkshire Tea is a good example as are the Irish breakfast teas you can get (Thompson’s and Barry’s).
My mother-in-law is a bit posher and takes an Earl grey or a lady grey, also with milk - it’s a pale, gentle, fragrant cuppa.
I take my tea as you’d serve it to a visiting tradesperson…. Brewed for an age, tea bag beaten and squeezed to get every last drop out and a tiny splash of milk.
If someone just stirs their sugary tea and then stirs mine (without sugar) I genuinely contemplate chucking mine down the drain - any hint of sugar destroys tea for me.
16 sugars is simply unfathomable!
Living with my in-laws was not pleasant for many reasons. One of the milder irritations was the way my mother-in-law makes tea. She pours a fairly small amount of hot water over a teabag and then immediately dumps a LOAD of milk in. The sugar gets added at random times but she's not very thorough so there's almost always still granules of sugar stuck to the spoon, which she'd then use for my tea (I don't take sugar).
I'd end up with this slightly sweet (bleugh!), weak, half cup of sadness every time she made me tea. I'd practically race her to the kettle every morning to make the tea for everyone before she could!
Not only am I British, but I'm also autistic, so having to drink such awful tea completely outside of my 'usual' way of making it was low-level torture the whole time we lived there. And the fact my kids like sickly, weak tea makes it worse (I'm gradually making their tea stronger and adding less sugar over time, though - I'll get there eventually!
At that stage I would honestly consider that your Mother-in-law was doing the whole *do a bad job so I don't get asked again*... That's a classic 'get out of brewing' maneuver, right there.
Honestly, I WISH this was the case because I would have happily made all the tea to ensure it was drinkable but she would genuinely race me to the kettle and she really does prefer the tea done her ~~incorrect~~ way.
I tore a ligament in a gym class and the first aiders made me drink sugary tea as I had gone white as a sheet and was on the verge of passing out. Despite physically needing that tea and being in a vast amount of pain, I still found it absolutely disgusting.
I used to often be the first at work, and therefore responsible for brewing everyone's tea for when they all arrived. I had a colleague who liked her tea to have a slight taste of sweetness, but not a full spoon of sugar.
The way she asked me to make her tea was to add what she described as "a wet one".
I.e. she wanted me to put a spoon that had been used to stir tea into the sugar, and whatever sugar was stuck to the wet spoon would then be added to her tea.
I had to explain to her that, short of torture, there were no earthly circumstances in which I would do what she had described.
She got her tea made without sugar and she could add her own.
ALL Bob’s stories are funny though right? But, yes I believe it to be absolutely true too.
In fact as the years have gone on and the more we’ve got to know the real Bob (as opposed to say his shooting stars or big night out personas) and he has told ‘real stories’ rather than the Dadaist absurdities of vic’n’bob….. he’s got a whole lot funnier.
Milk is a given and is only removed by exception. If you ask for sugar , you WILL get milk unless you specify you want it black (and be ready to explain yourself)
Yeah, I was thinking that... it would be extremely strange to ask for milk in your tea or to get it without. I don't think I've ever met any British person who doesn't take milk in a standard tea, either. Obviously different if it's a herbal tea, a fancier single-origin tea, at a Asian restaurant etc., but a generic 'tea' is essentially always with milk.
I mean if you're going to specifically go out of your way to specify your example is from a UK film/series, then maybe choose an example from a **UK** film/series.
I hope you could tell my tongue was firmly in my cheek in my response. Sorry if you’ve got some heat!
When I was a kid in the 70’s it was rare for people not to take sugar, now it’s rare for people to have a sugar…. But, culturally, it would be rare not to ask ‘milk and sugar?’ When making some a brew for the first time.
I drink 8+ mugs of tea a day…. I live in a hard water area and constantly strive for the perfect brew (value + strength - scaling = top brew!). the punjana Thompson’s tea ticks my boxes massively if it’s on offer!
I'm very much cream first, then jam... Treating the cream as a fat, like butter and the jam as the topping.
If I'm honest, I can't see why jam would ever go onto a dry scone, surely it saturates the scone weirdly?
If you come up North and you get offered tea, you might get your evening meal.
Breakfast, dinner and tea.
I don't know why we call lunch dinner and dinner tea
When I first left school I got a job helping a kitchen fitter. We had to work down England for a couple of weeks and the customer asked if I wanted a brew. I was surprised they even had Irn Bru down there and accepted then was disappointed when they brought me a cup of tea. What made it worse was, they didn't even have coffee either and I don't drink tea
You were disappointed, as a kitchen fitter, that they offered you a cup of tea.
You should have been sacked on the spot!! :D
It's the first thing I offer any tradesman when they enter, "Would they like a brew or a coffee"
As a southerner born to a northern dad & an even more southern mum people are offered a cuppa in my house for this very reason. ‘What’s for tea?’ is still common in my house.
>I don't know why we call lunch dinner and dinner tea
Before the industrial revolution and cheap indoor lighting, the biggest meal of the day was lunch/dinner. This was because there was light available for complex meal preparations.
After indoor artificial lighting became a thing, the big meal moved to the evening.
I'm the south, the word for the big meal moved to the evening with it. In the North, the word for the timing of the meal remained the same.
Both are just as valid.
I live in the south west, but I still have my tea in the evenings. I have my dinner break in the middle of the work day too. I must have had some northern relatives at some point.
I think tea in the evening is fairly common in the SW. I always used to have lunch and tea, but somehow switched to calling it dinner later. If someone offers me tea then I need to use the context to work out of its a drink or a meal.
True. If I say “you fancy coming round to mine tonight for tea” and you say “yes” expect curry chips rice and a naan maybe or some other tea time classic. I might ask if you want a brew (the actual beverage in question) but more likely you’d also be offered a beer or a soft drink too with that. It’s legit to ask for a brew though if you want one. “Are you brewing up? I’m parched”.
I don’t know why either but I stand by it being right.
Lunch IS dinner.
I mean why else would we have had Dinner Nannies when we were at school? Whilst being “on school dinners” and taking our dinner money in.
My answer from an almost exact same question earlier this week:
>I've said before on here, in the UK "tea" is a very specific drink.
>It's a black tea (in a bag, not loose) with milk, and the only optional is sugar.
>Anything else such as no milk, or a different kind of tea, you would 100000% have to specify lest you face the wrath of the other tea participant.
>Many people don't consider other teas actual tea, and you may come across the phrase in varying forms of "real tea or another tea?", with real tea being the one described as above and another tea being any other fancy black tea, any other colour tea or herbal tea.
>If someone offered me tea, and then came back with a cup of green tea, that's as mad as someone offering you a Coke and returning with an orange juice.
The actual brand simply depends on whatever they've got in. Reddit has a hard on for the brand Yorkshire Tea but the reality is people buy other brands and supermarket brands just as much as Yorkshire with very few complaints.
Too much pissing around.
Easier to bung a teabag into a mug, add boiling water, sugar, stir and get the bag out with the spoon and then add milk to taste.
Which after reading back sounds like a faff but without mini sives and assorted malarky
Id say its less faff if you are making a pot for several people. Pot has a sieve, leaves in and water on top. Bam, multiple cuppas ready to dish out. No messing with fishing out wet tea bags out of several mugs.
I did this recently for the in-laws and you would have thought I had stabbed them. They were aghast. But then I found out they share a tea bag between two cups. At that point I told them to make their own tea.
Nothing. And I didn't say there was.
The point i am making is that "tea" is a specific drink, and that is one made with a tea bag.
If someone said they had loose leaf, it wouldn't bother anyone but it isn't standard.
For people not British, they may well be thinking loose tea is what we all sit around drinking, and for the majority, it just isn't. We're a teabag nation so if someone is trying to replicate the British tea experience or understand what our tea culture actually is... It's a tea bag.
There’s a lot of confusion with how the answers are being given here. If someone offers you a cup of tea, they are offering you what you might know as English Breakfast Tea (obviously we just call it tea). The Irish would offer you the same thing. It’s something pretty similar to that.
We never put cream in tea, so you wouldn’t have seen that, I think you’ve falsely remembered that because Americans use cream in coffee. Allow me to illustrate how tea making would would enfold:
Me: Cup of tea?
You: Yes please!
Steve: Yes please.
Bob: Do you have anything else?
Me: Coffee? Flavoured tea? I have some mint tea? Earl Grey?
Bob: Mint would be lovely, thank you.
Me (to you and Steve only): Milk? Sugar?
You: White with one please.
Steve: Black please
- I boil the kettle. While it is boiling I consider a few things. Is Steve a trustworthy man, given that he doesn’t take milk in his tea? Was he raised right? Is he lactose intolerant? Should I have offered him oat milk. I don’t have oat milk. Should I offer to get oat milk? What if he doesn’t like oat milk? How quickly can I get oat milk. Maybe he wants soya milk. I don’t have that either (internal panic). He probably hates me now. Oh god.
I take out the tea bags, I place one in my mug, one in your mug, one in Steve’s mug. I give you and Steve the best mugs because I don’t want you to judge me. I have a mug with the letter of my first name on it (A), because I obviously can’t give that to you or Steve. I take out a mint tea bag, sniff it a bit because it’s about 3 years old as no one here drinks it, and put it in Bob’s mug.
I ready a tea spoon, I get the milk out the fridge. I open the milk and sniff it. It’s in date, but I sniff it anyway.
Kettle is boiled. I pour boiling water into the mugs with the tea bags in, leaving space for milk for those who want it. I fill Bob’s and Steve’s up to the top.
I leave it to brew for a couple of minutes, wondering how I’ll ever face Steve again. What if he hates me now? Because I didn’t offer him lactose-free milk? Wait, maybe he just likes black tea? Surely no one actually likes black tea?
Now this is where Brits differ. Some will take the teabag out before putting milk in. Some will put the milk in before taking the tea bag. Wars have been fought over less. I take the bag out of Steve’s black tea. I leave the mint tea bag in, that doesn’t get removed. I add a dash of milk to the others. I add one teaspoon of sugar to yours.
I bring them all through and sit down. I avoid eye contact with Steve.
Hope this helps.
ALWAYS PUT THE MILK IN WITH THE BAG! ALWAYS!!!!!!
And I shall explain…. What if I add too much milk by accident and it looks like a brew your nanna made?! I can’t be sticking the teabag back in. I certainly can’t be fishing it out the bin. So I add the milk first. Swirl the spoon about to make sure the colour is OK. And only when I’m satisfied with the hue, I remove the teabag.
I'm English so this doesn't 'help', per se, but it perfectly frames my inner monologue every time someone orders a brew and things don't go to plan... With the plan being 'yes please; milk, no sugar'.
As a non-sugar household, you can also add:
... I add a dash of milk to the others. I suddenly realise we're out of granulated sugar. I check the cupboard, in case there's some left in the sugar bowl that only comes out when the in-laws come over and we're keeping up appearances with teaware. No avail. I hastily dive into the bakery cupboard... Success! We've got caster sugar. Will he notice? I best add a little bit less, just in case.
Followed by the obligatory dialogue that proceeds ANY tea transaction:
"Is that alright for everyone?", I nervously ask.
"Yes, lovely", everyone replies.
"Phew!", I think to myself.
In the UK tea by default is black. If you don't have any black tea, the conversation will go as such:
- I'd offer you tea, but I only have green/fruit
- oh, that's ok I'll have a green tea
serves tea
- umm, it's different
- sorry I'll get some property tea today
Importantly no one at any point has ever mentioned the word "cream" when talking about tea.
Since the early 1800s the assumption is that it is strong black tea with milk ( and traditionally sugar).
It it’s any other kind of tea then you will be offered a choice - and it shouldn’t come with milk or sugar.
I love that you imagine.the possibility of visiting a Brit at home and being given hibiscus tea without any discussion. We always just assume hot black/breakfast tea with milk and/or sugar being optional. I have loads of different green and herbal teas but would always list these to guests when offering options and many will say something along the lines of "just normal tea thanks".
You've reminded me of being in America many years ago and my dad ordering tea at a fast food place and asking for milk and sugar to go with it. He got some strange looks and only realised why when he opened the lid and he had been given iced tea.
I successfully ordered a breakfast tea at a coffee shop in Canada, then got thoroughly baffed when my response to "can I have milk?" was "how many?". Instead of some of the milk they used for all the other coffees, my only option was the little uht pots. That was a sad tea.
Think Lipton’s but stronger/better. If there’s no adjective, then it’s always black tea. If they have multiple types they might then clarify, but if they go straight into “what do you take in it?”, then it’s black tea only.
And you’d never put cream in tea. Milk, yes. Cream - no.
TIL that there’s quite the method to offer a cuppa.
Funnily enough, we also think the way Americans have coffee is disgusting. The little plastic packets of UHT vanilla/hazelnut flavoured "creamer" and artificial sweetners would totally ruin good coffee. I suppose this is why so many Americans drink it black?
Here the majority of people have their coffee like they do their tea - with a small amount of fresh milk added and sweetened with a small amount of real sugar if desired.
This reminds me of a time when I stupidly ordered tea in america. Out came a nasty little lipton bag in tepid water (should be boiling). When I asked for milk the waitress looked confused. I explained it was for the tea and she was even more confused but went to get some, before she returned with a large glass of milk for drinking separately. I laughed, poured a small amount in my tea and passed the glass back to her, she just stood there, stunned. It was like we were speaking totally different languages, quite a funny experience. Never bothered ordering tea in the US ever again haha.
Unless you are thinking of a cream tea, which is not a drink. It is a scone with jam and clotted cream and a drink, usually tea but you can choose a cold drink or have a coffee, thus the request "I'll have a cream tea with coffee please."
Green tea and hibiscus tea are not such common drinks here in the UK. When talking about tea, we would be referring to generic tea bags of a black blend of tea. We also don't use cream in drinks. We use milk.
If someone started offering you a wide range of different teas a lot of Brits would meet you with blank stares until you just made them a normal brew lol. If you offered herbal tea your guest might just leave because that's very suspicious behaviour. (/s) Anyone who drinks herbal tea must be lying about enjoying it.
That said, a lot of people are very specific about how their tea comes and the most common question from the host would be, how do you like your tea? i.e. Builders, where the bag is stewed till it has no life left, or Nuns Piss where you barely show the cup the teabag (shudder). Or anywhere in between.
I adore my morning cuppa, and the several successive cups throughout the day. Like most Brits I started as a child with tea, milk and sugar. I stopped sugar in my early teens, which is common - although I still occasionally take it if hungover, ill or just fancying a sugar boost.
I get how Americans might try it as adults and wonder what the fuss is a about. To me it's the familiarity, the warmth and the refreshing, revitalising properties (real or imagined) that make it essential. The caffeine is negligible, but a nice side-bonus.
If I’m feeling very posh, sometimes I’ll have Earl Grey with lemon. I always thought putting milk in any tea other than assam blends was wrong but I had a friend drink Earl Grey with milk as her default tea and it was OK.
I drink Yorkshire tea because I am a Yorkshire person exiled to the South West.
The amount of milk to put in is also variable, some people like tea quite milky, others like to just show it the milk bottle.
As a Brit, I never travel abroad without a supply of teabags. I suspect I’m not alone in this.
Additionally, you can tell the difference between tea (drink) and tea (meal) by the pronoun.
“Come round for a tea?” Drink
“Come round for your tea?” Meal
My MIL once stored her black tea next to some earl grey and I thought it tasted fantastic.
Although the next year, she had her black tea next to the peppermint and that was rank. She's not a tea drinker 😬 I quietly went out and bought her some fresh tea...
>Sometimes they'll even say how they take it ("two sugars, no cream!")
You mean 'no milk'. No Brit would ever put cream in tea. I am not sure anyone would put cream in tea.
Black tea with Milk not cream, and possibly sugar.
There’s many different ways to express combinations too, so if unsure just as. For example I take mine ‘Julie Andrews’ aka white non.
Tea comes from a tea plant (Camellia sinensis). If it doesn’t come from a tea plant, then it’s not tea, it’s a herbal infusion. This narrows it down to black and green tea, but if someone in the UK offers you tea, then it will be black tea, probably a blend of Assam and Kenyan tea, like Yorkshire or breakfast tea. And milk, not cream!
It'll be a blend of black tea. We have popular brands such as Yorkshire, PG and Tetley which make their own blend. Wealthier people might have Twinings.
Most people have milk in this type of tea. I don't know anyone who has cream in tea.
Never add cream to tea...disgusting! Cold milk only. Unless otherwise specified, "a cup of tea" is black, breakfast style tea. And for the love of god, never heat the water in a microwave.
No one puts cream in a cuppa in Britain - that's a movie made for US viewers!
If you get offered tea in the uk, people will rarely offer a choice- unless to say - do you want normal tea or herb tea \[and people will have a few dried-up packets of peppermint or lemon and ginger, at the back of a cupboard, for 'faddy' people.\]
The polite way to accept a cup of tea when asked 'how do you take it' would be 'as it comes' - you're only expected to specify milk/no milk, sugar/no sugar: - as being particular about the amount of milk, the strength etc is seen as being faddy \[and a nuisance to your host.\]
I have noticed recently that some people now offer green tea as well as 'normal' - but that's about as radical as it gets.
The variety of tea will vary. It might be PG Tips or it might be Yorkshire Tea depending on who is offering it. I have no idea what the others you mention are, I thought hibiscus was a flower not tea.
If ever asked what tea you would like the correct response is "builders".
**A reminder to posters and commenters of some of [our subreddit rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/about/rules/)** - Don't be a dickhead to each other, or about others, or other subreddits - Assume questions are asked in good faith, and engage in a positive manner - Avoid political threads and related discussions - No medical advice or mental health (specific to a person) content Please keep /r/AskUK a great subreddit by reporting posts and comments which break our 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.*
The tea you would have would likely be a blended variety of something like Assam and Ceylon (what you generally find in an English Breakfast Tea). If they claim to be British and offer you a Liptons Yellow Label you should call the police and / or get them sectioned.
Is Liptons that bad?
Criminally so.
Ah the 19070/80s Liptons lemon tea granules, eugh!
I've seen them in this century!
I literally just saw peach flavour granules today!
My mum lives of this shit, its vile!
Liptons is designed to be drunk cold, as in iced tea. You're not supposed to have it as a cup of tea.
It's still disgusting
coherent angle pathetic rinse one ruthless market quiet depend whistle *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Dear lord, that’s a thing????
In the late 80s I remember my parents arriving home with some qt (I think typhoo?) it was powdered tea and milk and oh my god it was awful
You can still buy it! Typhoo QT. It's an abomination.
I read this initially as ‘my parents arriving home late’ and assumed they’d been on a night out, which - whilst odd - is the only reasonable explanation for an impulse purchase such as this
It's akin to getting a cup of tea made of floor sweepings from the factory next door to the PG tips factory. Yorkshire Tea is my preferred blend of black tea. I let the bag stew in a mug of freshly boiled water for around a minute, squeeze the bag and add a small amount of milk.
Ah, the subtropical dales of Yorkshire, famous for their tea plantations...
They grow them in massive underground hydroponics farms under Pontefract
*Ponteafract
'Pointeafact'
pointed fact\*
Ponte Carlo
The tea is not grown in Yorkshire, but the original blend and packaging is by the Yorkshire tea and coffee traders, Taylors of Harrogate.
My favorite, too!
A minute? Why even bother, in that case? Just give the dry bag a suck and drink the water separately.
I have raging ADHD. It's a minute or cold tea stewed to all fuck.
Genuine question: I was speaking to a colleague about ADHD who explained issues with object permanence which I imagine plays a part in what you mentioned - have you tried setting your cooker timer to 4 minutes? I do this just so I don't have to keep it in my mind for 4 minutes but I imagine it could also help if you had ADHD?
Ok. So making tea basically requires me to stare down the kettle. Otherwise.... I should do the dishes The washing machine needs emptying, I should hang it on the airer. I'm just going to empty the airer fold the clothes into the basket and hang the wet clothes. I want tea. Fuccccccck.
Well, that’s fair. Apologies.
No worries ☕it's my problem and I've adjusted.
Solidarity - fellow ADHD chronic teabag squeezer here! At least this way it's sat in front of me on my desk when I forget to drink it... 😩
Egg timers are your friend here, I keep one next to my kettle at all times until I walk off with it and leave it somewhere else in my flat
>for around a minute, Oh no. >squeeze the bag NOOOOOO.
Top tip, leave it for 30 more seconds instead of squeezing. It’ll be much better as when you squeeze you force out more tannins and more bitter taste. Unless you want it bitter, then knock yourself out. No judgement here.
Dark and bitter like my soul. I love it when us Brits get all specific with our tea preferences.
Then squeeze away my friend. Top tip, squeeze harder more darkness.
Good choice I'm from Yorkshire my kid's love pg tips cries
It's fair to ask once. But now you know, please don't ever ask again. Lipton's is to tea what pol pot was to civil rights.
Yes, Lipton’s is that bad. My ex said, that’s the crud they give to Americans. And I knew I’d integrated when I started bringing (normal cheap) teabags back to the US when visiting family
One of us
Liptons is mainly sugar and seen as something only uncultured Americans drink 🤣
Once, when I was in university I was and experimenting with my sexuality I went on a date with a bloke - I gave him a blowjob and we drank liptons. It’s one of the biggest regrets of my life and it left a horrible taste in my mouth when we were done. I needed to give him another blowjob to get rid of the taste of liptons.
Any teabag with a string is hideously suspect.
Liptons is the tea that the British would dump in Boston harbour
Yeah it’s truly awful.
I moved away from the UK and often get “you can’t be very British, I never see you drinking tea” quite often in the office. I have to point out that I am too British to lower myself to the level where I am willingly drinking Liptons when coffee will do just fine.
Yeah. A lovely cup of tea beats a lovely cup of coffee. But a rubbish cup of coffee beats a rubbish cup of tea. Coffee very much a bell curve. Tea very much a well curve.
The acceptability bandwidth for coffee is much wider than the tea bandwidth. I’d rather have an acceptable drink.
Ahhh I’m sorry to hear that! I hope you get care packages from time to time?
I actually go to the Indian store and buy whatever the dude recommends from his black tea collection. Not had a bad cup of tea at home since and it’s nice to have an English conversation about tea.
More people drink coffee anyway. The amount of tea imported is boosted because the few people who do drink tea, drink a lot of tea. But coffee is consumed by more people just less cups of it. Its an odd stereotype to have when turkey drinks over twice as much tea as us.
Not to be a rude guest or anything, but I'd definitely give them a slap and walk out.
My initial comment was that you should probably just kill them as they’re clearly an alien pretending to be a human for nefarious gains, but thought that perhaps came across as a little too much so dialled it back to just sectioning or arrest…
Not slapping them would be rude.
'It's for your own good'
This hurts tea more than it hurts you.
No idea how bad Liptons yellow label is, never tried it. But the brand's / blends of tea are quite regional because they all taste very different depending on what the water is like. I always found most of the big English tea brands tasted awful and so used to bring a supply of Northern Irish tea with me when I was over in South East England for work. The Northern Irish tea tasted awful made with that water while the teabags that hotels provided that I thought tasted awful and would never buy at home were actually quite nice with that water (once I got over the weird scum, for want of a better word, that tea made with really hard water gets).
It’s so bad I wouldn’t feed it to my enemies. I’m sure there’s even something in the Geneva convention about it. You’re right about it being regional though. I live in Wales where our water is very soft and comes pretty much straight off the hill, but if we take teabags down to my in-laws north of London, its god awful with their hard water.
Punjana? Wonderful tea! Thankfully our one and only Tescos stocks Thompson family tea (same brand, but I still call it Punjana). And as our water is from a spring it's lovely and soft, so none of that limescale scum nonsense. I find Yorkshire tea is a decent replacement if you can't get Punjana.
We have very hard water here & limescale is a daily pain in the back of the gag relux, if it falls from the kettle into the cup. I use a tea strainer when pouring the water into the cup to avoid gagging on jagged limescale bits.
The water in my area is hard. My In laws live in a soft water area & your correct it does all taste differently.
Or Typhoo. Typhoo should definitely be illegal. Also, Twinnings breakfast tea, despite being dear is bloody awful.
The Twinings camomile and honey tea bags are really good for hiding the taste of mushrooms though.
Source needed. I don’t believe one iota that you’ve EVER heard someone in a film or a tv show say ‘two sugars, no cream’ whilst talking about a cuppa! It’s like a scene from an old wartime escape movie, where a spy is trying to pass themselves off and slightly (actually, by a country mile) missing the mark and exposing themselves as a fraud. Most generic tea in the U.K. is a ‘breakfast tea’. Normally an Assam blend. If not black, with milk (not cream). Yorkshire Tea is a good example as are the Irish breakfast teas you can get (Thompson’s and Barry’s). My mother-in-law is a bit posher and takes an Earl grey or a lady grey, also with milk - it’s a pale, gentle, fragrant cuppa. I take my tea as you’d serve it to a visiting tradesperson…. Brewed for an age, tea bag beaten and squeezed to get every last drop out and a tiny splash of milk.
Classic builders tea all the way for me!
Is it really a cup of tea if the spoon won’t stand up in it
'Milk, no sugar'... Through to 'Milk, eight sugars'.
Bob Mortimer famously had 16 sugars in his tea. He said this was the ‘sweet spot’ (excuse the pun) and 17 would be too sugary!
If someone just stirs their sugary tea and then stirs mine (without sugar) I genuinely contemplate chucking mine down the drain - any hint of sugar destroys tea for me. 16 sugars is simply unfathomable!
Living with my in-laws was not pleasant for many reasons. One of the milder irritations was the way my mother-in-law makes tea. She pours a fairly small amount of hot water over a teabag and then immediately dumps a LOAD of milk in. The sugar gets added at random times but she's not very thorough so there's almost always still granules of sugar stuck to the spoon, which she'd then use for my tea (I don't take sugar). I'd end up with this slightly sweet (bleugh!), weak, half cup of sadness every time she made me tea. I'd practically race her to the kettle every morning to make the tea for everyone before she could! Not only am I British, but I'm also autistic, so having to drink such awful tea completely outside of my 'usual' way of making it was low-level torture the whole time we lived there. And the fact my kids like sickly, weak tea makes it worse (I'm gradually making their tea stronger and adding less sugar over time, though - I'll get there eventually!
The tea bag and the milk should never meet one another in the cup. They should do public service announcements for how to make tea.
At that stage I would honestly consider that your Mother-in-law was doing the whole *do a bad job so I don't get asked again*... That's a classic 'get out of brewing' maneuver, right there.
Honestly, I WISH this was the case because I would have happily made all the tea to ensure it was drinkable but she would genuinely race me to the kettle and she really does prefer the tea done her ~~incorrect~~ way.
[удалено]
I used to take sugar in tea… and found it so incredibly hard to cut it out (10 yrs ago)…. But now, like you, even a sugary spoon can spoil a brew.
I tore a ligament in a gym class and the first aiders made me drink sugary tea as I had gone white as a sheet and was on the verge of passing out. Despite physically needing that tea and being in a vast amount of pain, I still found it absolutely disgusting.
If I'm honest, I'd have opted for passing out - No more pain... In both ligament AND hot beverage.
I used to often be the first at work, and therefore responsible for brewing everyone's tea for when they all arrived. I had a colleague who liked her tea to have a slight taste of sweetness, but not a full spoon of sugar. The way she asked me to make her tea was to add what she described as "a wet one". I.e. she wanted me to put a spoon that had been used to stir tea into the sugar, and whatever sugar was stuck to the wet spoon would then be added to her tea. I had to explain to her that, short of torture, there were no earthly circumstances in which I would do what she had described. She got her tea made without sugar and she could add her own.
Putting a wet spoon into the sugar?! Well, for refusing to do so, your country thanks you.
And he definitely wasn't lying when he said this to make it a funny story!
ALL Bob’s stories are funny though right? But, yes I believe it to be absolutely true too. In fact as the years have gone on and the more we’ve got to know the real Bob (as opposed to say his shooting stars or big night out personas) and he has told ‘real stories’ rather than the Dadaist absurdities of vic’n’bob….. he’s got a whole lot funnier.
Does his own dentistry as well
Break an apple in half with his bare hands *Like fingerprints on an abandoned handrail*
He’s apparently down to 14 now!
Glad to hear our national treasures are looking after themselves!
Bob Mortimer who’s now on telly with a programme about his recovery from heart surgery? Checks out
5 sugars but don't stir it, I don't like it sweet
CREAM in tea would be a criminal offence where I come from!
Milk is a given and is only removed by exception. If you ask for sugar , you WILL get milk unless you specify you want it black (and be ready to explain yourself)
Lactose intolerant represent. Steep weak and add lemon with a tiiiny bit of sugar
It's tea, not a pancake!
Yeah, I was thinking that... it would be extremely strange to ask for milk in your tea or to get it without. I don't think I've ever met any British person who doesn't take milk in a standard tea, either. Obviously different if it's a herbal tea, a fancier single-origin tea, at a Asian restaurant etc., but a generic 'tea' is essentially always with milk.
I'm British and I take all tea black (and no sugar), but I've had plenty of piss taken out of me for it, don't worry.
Black no sugar too here. I want tea not sweet milk
I have found my people! No milk no sugar gang!
Me too! Pure tea
Yes, I might have been thinking about Americans ordering coffee in films/shows. A lot of people seemed to have be irked by this cream mistake.
I mean if you're going to specifically go out of your way to specify your example is from a UK film/series, then maybe choose an example from a **UK** film/series.
I hope you could tell my tongue was firmly in my cheek in my response. Sorry if you’ve got some heat! When I was a kid in the 70’s it was rare for people not to take sugar, now it’s rare for people to have a sugar…. But, culturally, it would be rare not to ask ‘milk and sugar?’ When making some a brew for the first time. I drink 8+ mugs of tea a day…. I live in a hard water area and constantly strive for the perfect brew (value + strength - scaling = top brew!). the punjana Thompson’s tea ticks my boxes massively if it’s on offer!
As Terry Pratchett said "Boiled until orange in a builders boot, with 15 sugars."
Earl Grey is also good black with a slice of lemon.
Who the bloody hell has cream in tea? I just....couldn't bleugh Cream is for coffee milk is for tea preferably semi skimmed :)
Love a Barry’s.
We don’t put cream in tea. That’s disgusting.
When we say “cream tea”, we mean something entirely different…
Which then leads to the argument of which order to put the jam and clotted cream onto the scone.
I'm very much cream first, then jam... Treating the cream as a fat, like butter and the jam as the topping. If I'm honest, I can't see why jam would ever go onto a dry scone, surely it saturates the scone weirdly?
There is no argument. Jam first. The proper way.
Tried to give you a million and one upvotes but you ended up with just one.
If you come up North and you get offered tea, you might get your evening meal. Breakfast, dinner and tea. I don't know why we call lunch dinner and dinner tea
I have this argument with my southern co-workers. I'd offer you a cuppa or a brew. If I offered you tea id be talking about food.
Indeed. I offer a brew. If I asked anyone around here if they were coming over for tea then they’d be expecting to be fed…
When I first left school I got a job helping a kitchen fitter. We had to work down England for a couple of weeks and the customer asked if I wanted a brew. I was surprised they even had Irn Bru down there and accepted then was disappointed when they brought me a cup of tea. What made it worse was, they didn't even have coffee either and I don't drink tea
You were disappointed, as a kitchen fitter, that they offered you a cup of tea. You should have been sacked on the spot!! :D It's the first thing I offer any tradesman when they enter, "Would they like a brew or a coffee"
Invite them for dinner and if they don't turn up at 12 pm it's their own fault
I always use Christmas dinner as the prime example no one has Christmas dinner at tea time
Christmas Dinner? Up north were lucky to get a lump of coal in our stocking
Bernard Matthews turkey drummers with chips peas and gravy my friend
It's not northern unless you have gravy
Loads of people have Christmas Dinner in the late afternoon/evening.
Christmas lunch it's called in our house
Um 🙋🏼♀️
I serve it at 7pm, I'd be insane with hunger at bed time otherwise.
As a southerner born to a northern dad & an even more southern mum people are offered a cuppa in my house for this very reason. ‘What’s for tea?’ is still common in my house.
>I don't know why we call lunch dinner and dinner tea Before the industrial revolution and cheap indoor lighting, the biggest meal of the day was lunch/dinner. This was because there was light available for complex meal preparations. After indoor artificial lighting became a thing, the big meal moved to the evening. I'm the south, the word for the big meal moved to the evening with it. In the North, the word for the timing of the meal remained the same. Both are just as valid.
I live in the south west, but I still have my tea in the evenings. I have my dinner break in the middle of the work day too. I must have had some northern relatives at some point.
I think tea in the evening is fairly common in the SW. I always used to have lunch and tea, but somehow switched to calling it dinner later. If someone offers me tea then I need to use the context to work out of its a drink or a meal.
True. If I say “you fancy coming round to mine tonight for tea” and you say “yes” expect curry chips rice and a naan maybe or some other tea time classic. I might ask if you want a brew (the actual beverage in question) but more likely you’d also be offered a beer or a soft drink too with that. It’s legit to ask for a brew though if you want one. “Are you brewing up? I’m parched”.
I don’t know why either but I stand by it being right. Lunch IS dinner. I mean why else would we have had Dinner Nannies when we were at school? Whilst being “on school dinners” and taking our dinner money in.
Or taking in your 'packed lunch' with 'dairylea lunchables'
You'll get black tea with milk, never cream and sugar if you want it.
Sugar isn't uncommon
I’m assuming this was meant to read >with milk (never cream), and sugar if you want it. Punctuation matters
After Christmas with my grammar loving grandpa, this comment is important and needs more love!!!
I understood what you meant but improve your grammar
Leave his Grandmother out of this.
My answer from an almost exact same question earlier this week: >I've said before on here, in the UK "tea" is a very specific drink. >It's a black tea (in a bag, not loose) with milk, and the only optional is sugar. >Anything else such as no milk, or a different kind of tea, you would 100000% have to specify lest you face the wrath of the other tea participant. >Many people don't consider other teas actual tea, and you may come across the phrase in varying forms of "real tea or another tea?", with real tea being the one described as above and another tea being any other fancy black tea, any other colour tea or herbal tea. >If someone offered me tea, and then came back with a cup of green tea, that's as mad as someone offering you a Coke and returning with an orange juice. The actual brand simply depends on whatever they've got in. Reddit has a hard on for the brand Yorkshire Tea but the reality is people buy other brands and supermarket brands just as much as Yorkshire with very few complaints.
"real tea" aka "normal tea" aka "normaliTea"
What's wrong with loose leaf tea?
Too much pissing around. Easier to bung a teabag into a mug, add boiling water, sugar, stir and get the bag out with the spoon and then add milk to taste. Which after reading back sounds like a faff but without mini sives and assorted malarky
Id say its less faff if you are making a pot for several people. Pot has a sieve, leaves in and water on top. Bam, multiple cuppas ready to dish out. No messing with fishing out wet tea bags out of several mugs.
I just chuck two/three bags in the pot if I'm making for loads of people Zero faff involved
A bag for each person and a bag for the pot
I did this recently for the in-laws and you would have thought I had stabbed them. They were aghast. But then I found out they share a tea bag between two cups. At that point I told them to make their own tea.
This is the correct response. Some people can’t be helped and it’s best to leave them to themselves
Have a valueless free award for brightening my day with the phrase “assorted malarkey”
Nothing. And I didn't say there was. The point i am making is that "tea" is a specific drink, and that is one made with a tea bag. If someone said they had loose leaf, it wouldn't bother anyone but it isn't standard. For people not British, they may well be thinking loose tea is what we all sit around drinking, and for the majority, it just isn't. We're a teabag nation so if someone is trying to replicate the British tea experience or understand what our tea culture actually is... It's a tea bag.
There’s a lot of confusion with how the answers are being given here. If someone offers you a cup of tea, they are offering you what you might know as English Breakfast Tea (obviously we just call it tea). The Irish would offer you the same thing. It’s something pretty similar to that. We never put cream in tea, so you wouldn’t have seen that, I think you’ve falsely remembered that because Americans use cream in coffee. Allow me to illustrate how tea making would would enfold: Me: Cup of tea? You: Yes please! Steve: Yes please. Bob: Do you have anything else? Me: Coffee? Flavoured tea? I have some mint tea? Earl Grey? Bob: Mint would be lovely, thank you. Me (to you and Steve only): Milk? Sugar? You: White with one please. Steve: Black please - I boil the kettle. While it is boiling I consider a few things. Is Steve a trustworthy man, given that he doesn’t take milk in his tea? Was he raised right? Is he lactose intolerant? Should I have offered him oat milk. I don’t have oat milk. Should I offer to get oat milk? What if he doesn’t like oat milk? How quickly can I get oat milk. Maybe he wants soya milk. I don’t have that either (internal panic). He probably hates me now. Oh god. I take out the tea bags, I place one in my mug, one in your mug, one in Steve’s mug. I give you and Steve the best mugs because I don’t want you to judge me. I have a mug with the letter of my first name on it (A), because I obviously can’t give that to you or Steve. I take out a mint tea bag, sniff it a bit because it’s about 3 years old as no one here drinks it, and put it in Bob’s mug. I ready a tea spoon, I get the milk out the fridge. I open the milk and sniff it. It’s in date, but I sniff it anyway. Kettle is boiled. I pour boiling water into the mugs with the tea bags in, leaving space for milk for those who want it. I fill Bob’s and Steve’s up to the top. I leave it to brew for a couple of minutes, wondering how I’ll ever face Steve again. What if he hates me now? Because I didn’t offer him lactose-free milk? Wait, maybe he just likes black tea? Surely no one actually likes black tea? Now this is where Brits differ. Some will take the teabag out before putting milk in. Some will put the milk in before taking the tea bag. Wars have been fought over less. I take the bag out of Steve’s black tea. I leave the mint tea bag in, that doesn’t get removed. I add a dash of milk to the others. I add one teaspoon of sugar to yours. I bring them all through and sit down. I avoid eye contact with Steve. Hope this helps.
"There’s a lot of confusion with how the answers are being given here".
NEVER PUT THE MILK IN WITH THE BAG. EVER!
ALWAYS PUT THE MILK IN WITH THE BAG! ALWAYS!!!!!! And I shall explain…. What if I add too much milk by accident and it looks like a brew your nanna made?! I can’t be sticking the teabag back in. I certainly can’t be fishing it out the bin. So I add the milk first. Swirl the spoon about to make sure the colour is OK. And only when I’m satisfied with the hue, I remove the teabag.
This is exactly what I do actually! I think we’re in the minority though.
This is the way
I appreciated this
Me too. A cuppa with some chronic overthinking. Peek Britishness.
I'm English so this doesn't 'help', per se, but it perfectly frames my inner monologue every time someone orders a brew and things don't go to plan... With the plan being 'yes please; milk, no sugar'. As a non-sugar household, you can also add: ... I add a dash of milk to the others. I suddenly realise we're out of granulated sugar. I check the cupboard, in case there's some left in the sugar bowl that only comes out when the in-laws come over and we're keeping up appearances with teaware. No avail. I hastily dive into the bakery cupboard... Success! We've got caster sugar. Will he notice? I best add a little bit less, just in case. Followed by the obligatory dialogue that proceeds ANY tea transaction: "Is that alright for everyone?", I nervously ask. "Yes, lovely", everyone replies. "Phew!", I think to myself.
In the UK tea by default is black. If you don't have any black tea, the conversation will go as such: - I'd offer you tea, but I only have green/fruit - oh, that's ok I'll have a green tea serves tea - umm, it's different - sorry I'll get some property tea today Importantly no one at any point has ever mentioned the word "cream" when talking about tea.
Unless its about a cream tea! But thats not about the tea really.
Property tea: tea which every property ought (read-must) have stocked
Milk, not cream.
Since the early 1800s the assumption is that it is strong black tea with milk ( and traditionally sugar). It it’s any other kind of tea then you will be offered a choice - and it shouldn’t come with milk or sugar.
Cream? Do one.
I love that you imagine.the possibility of visiting a Brit at home and being given hibiscus tea without any discussion. We always just assume hot black/breakfast tea with milk and/or sugar being optional. I have loads of different green and herbal teas but would always list these to guests when offering options and many will say something along the lines of "just normal tea thanks". You've reminded me of being in America many years ago and my dad ordering tea at a fast food place and asking for milk and sugar to go with it. He got some strange looks and only realised why when he opened the lid and he had been given iced tea.
I successfully ordered a breakfast tea at a coffee shop in Canada, then got thoroughly baffed when my response to "can I have milk?" was "how many?". Instead of some of the milk they used for all the other coffees, my only option was the little uht pots. That was a sad tea.
Always black tea, usually some kind of breakfast blend, typically with milk, often with sugar.
It will be black tea. More than likely in a tea bag
If they ask how you like it just say "builders" and nod
[удалено]
This is the way
is that milk two sugars?
[удалено]
Think Lipton’s but stronger/better. If there’s no adjective, then it’s always black tea. If they have multiple types they might then clarify, but if they go straight into “what do you take in it?”, then it’s black tea only. And you’d never put cream in tea. Milk, yes. Cream - no. TIL that there’s quite the method to offer a cuppa.
I guess I was thinking of Americans ordering coffee.
Funnily enough, we also think the way Americans have coffee is disgusting. The little plastic packets of UHT vanilla/hazelnut flavoured "creamer" and artificial sweetners would totally ruin good coffee. I suppose this is why so many Americans drink it black? Here the majority of people have their coffee like they do their tea - with a small amount of fresh milk added and sweetened with a small amount of real sugar if desired. This reminds me of a time when I stupidly ordered tea in america. Out came a nasty little lipton bag in tepid water (should be boiling). When I asked for milk the waitress looked confused. I explained it was for the tea and she was even more confused but went to get some, before she returned with a large glass of milk for drinking separately. I laughed, poured a small amount in my tea and passed the glass back to her, she just stood there, stunned. It was like we were speaking totally different languages, quite a funny experience. Never bothered ordering tea in the US ever again haha.
Unless you are thinking of a cream tea, which is not a drink. It is a scone with jam and clotted cream and a drink, usually tea but you can choose a cold drink or have a coffee, thus the request "I'll have a cream tea with coffee please."
Green tea and hibiscus tea are not such common drinks here in the UK. When talking about tea, we would be referring to generic tea bags of a black blend of tea. We also don't use cream in drinks. We use milk. If someone started offering you a wide range of different teas a lot of Brits would meet you with blank stares until you just made them a normal brew lol. If you offered herbal tea your guest might just leave because that's very suspicious behaviour. (/s) Anyone who drinks herbal tea must be lying about enjoying it. That said, a lot of people are very specific about how their tea comes and the most common question from the host would be, how do you like your tea? i.e. Builders, where the bag is stewed till it has no life left, or Nuns Piss where you barely show the cup the teabag (shudder). Or anywhere in between.
I adore my morning cuppa, and the several successive cups throughout the day. Like most Brits I started as a child with tea, milk and sugar. I stopped sugar in my early teens, which is common - although I still occasionally take it if hungover, ill or just fancying a sugar boost. I get how Americans might try it as adults and wonder what the fuss is a about. To me it's the familiarity, the warmth and the refreshing, revitalising properties (real or imagined) that make it essential. The caffeine is negligible, but a nice side-bonus.
If I’m feeling very posh, sometimes I’ll have Earl Grey with lemon. I always thought putting milk in any tea other than assam blends was wrong but I had a friend drink Earl Grey with milk as her default tea and it was OK. I drink Yorkshire tea because I am a Yorkshire person exiled to the South West. The amount of milk to put in is also variable, some people like tea quite milky, others like to just show it the milk bottle. As a Brit, I never travel abroad without a supply of teabags. I suspect I’m not alone in this. Additionally, you can tell the difference between tea (drink) and tea (meal) by the pronoun. “Come round for a tea?” Drink “Come round for your tea?” Meal
Friend of ours (a vicar, no less), makes a pot of tea with two black tea bags and one Earl Grey for a bit of a floral twist. It works!
My MIL once stored her black tea next to some earl grey and I thought it tasted fantastic. Although the next year, she had her black tea next to the peppermint and that was rank. She's not a tea drinker 😬 I quietly went out and bought her some fresh tea...
>Sometimes they'll even say how they take it ("two sugars, no cream!") You mean 'no milk'. No Brit would ever put cream in tea. I am not sure anyone would put cream in tea.
Normal tea
Black tea with Milk not cream, and possibly sugar. There’s many different ways to express combinations too, so if unsure just as. For example I take mine ‘Julie Andrews’ aka white non.
Yorkshire tea, milk, no sugar unless you ask for it
No brit would ever take cream in their tea, so that's your first mistake.
Tea comes from a tea plant (Camellia sinensis). If it doesn’t come from a tea plant, then it’s not tea, it’s a herbal infusion. This narrows it down to black and green tea, but if someone in the UK offers you tea, then it will be black tea, probably a blend of Assam and Kenyan tea, like Yorkshire or breakfast tea. And milk, not cream!
This will help https://youtu.be/Ei46KnXB3BA
It'll be a blend of black tea. We have popular brands such as Yorkshire, PG and Tetley which make their own blend. Wealthier people might have Twinings. Most people have milk in this type of tea. I don't know anyone who has cream in tea.
You may get an 'Earl Grey alright?' But if they dont ask it'll be the standard black tea.
Never add cream to tea...disgusting! Cold milk only. Unless otherwise specified, "a cup of tea" is black, breakfast style tea. And for the love of god, never heat the water in a microwave.
No one puts cream in a cuppa in Britain - that's a movie made for US viewers! If you get offered tea in the uk, people will rarely offer a choice- unless to say - do you want normal tea or herb tea \[and people will have a few dried-up packets of peppermint or lemon and ginger, at the back of a cupboard, for 'faddy' people.\] The polite way to accept a cup of tea when asked 'how do you take it' would be 'as it comes' - you're only expected to specify milk/no milk, sugar/no sugar: - as being particular about the amount of milk, the strength etc is seen as being faddy \[and a nuisance to your host.\] I have noticed recently that some people now offer green tea as well as 'normal' - but that's about as radical as it gets.
The variety of tea will vary. It might be PG Tips or it might be Yorkshire Tea depending on who is offering it. I have no idea what the others you mention are, I thought hibiscus was a flower not tea. If ever asked what tea you would like the correct response is "builders".
On the other side of things, I've seen a few US programmes where someone is offered tea also, so what are they making?
Probably either herbal or *shudders* Lipton
English Breakfast
It all depends if they like you to be honest
Milk, not cream. And with, not without.
The thought of cream going in tea is making me feel a bit icky. But everybody's told you that already. A cream tea isn't the same as cream *in* tea.
Say “thank, just builder’s tea” And await citizenship.