# British tea making skills! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 15, 2005, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093 "2005-11-15T01:36:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/21 "2005-11-15T03:32:34Z")
> [@](#): > > But as that’s been addressed…you have to put the milk in AFTER you stir in the sugar. Otherwise it “bruises” the milk. Or something. Anyway my Brit says he can taste the difference…I’m not sure I believe him but I’m far too afraid of him to question. I drink my tea without milk or sugar but I think your friend has a point. Not about the bruising, but the milk will cool off the tea and the sugar will dissolve better in the hotter undiluted tea. So sugar first and milk last. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/22 "2005-11-15T07:34:11Z")
> [@jocularjason](#): > > How can I make a cup of tea that a Brit. might find satisfactory. One Porcelain mug with big handle , little barbie doll cups with tiny one finger handles are verboten. Fill to capacity with tap water Place in Microwave Nuke Add instant coffee Drink Black Declan ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/23 "2005-11-15T08:11:53Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > One Porcelain mug with big handle , little barbie doll cups with tiny one finger handles are verboten. > > Fill to capacity with tap water > > Place in Microwave > > Nuke > > Add instant coffee > > Drink Black > > Declan Heathen. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/24 "2005-11-15T08:36:06Z")
> [@betenoir](#): > > Heathen. Well now I grew up in an Irish Household, where like many other people who imigrated from the Isle or the UK grew up on Tea. From what I have read in this particular thread , I think many are looking for a romantic vision of what the particular liquid is about. Some how or other I think this question will end up either in GD or IMHO or the pit , lol , but Tea is mostly a social drink thats is best served in company, rather than a stand alone drink. For that matter its almost as bad a question as how to make a proper boiled egg. Tea should be boiled with Tap water in a stainless steel or cast iron kettle, points for brewing up on a camp fire. Several bags of Red Rose tea, placed in a Porcelain Tea pot for the sunday mass post game show with the ladys , with a platter of quartered bread sandwiches , with cooked meat , cheese ,and tomatos. Condiments should include a tray of sugar cubes , and a small barbie doll pitcher of cream, the ladies will indicate their desire for light or dark tea as needed. For families , tea should be served on Sunday morning breakfast ,with a plate of bacon and eggs, toast with marmalade or jam, how strong it is , will depend on mothers mood and 2 % percent milk will suffice , other wise one might be thought to be puttiing on airs. Tea at night ,should be served no later than 9:30 pm , with what ever cookies are left that mom had hidden from certain thieves , whom ever that could be , lol. Declan ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/25 "2005-11-15T09:09:11Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > From what I have read in this particular thread , I think many are looking for a romantic vision of what the particular liquid is about. Oh, no, not romatic I think…rather viscious, in fact, as to what is “proper” tea. But then that’s one of the things I like about them 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/26 "2005-11-15T09:31:53Z")
If your tea is viscious, you’re using too much sugar. 😉 What I do to prevent excessive steeping with loose leaf tea is to use a french press. Yes, I know, not traditional etc, but with a french press I can pour just the right amount of hot water in for one cup, and re-fill as needed. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/27 "2005-11-15T10:13:32Z")
> [@Tabby\_Cat](#): > > If your tea is viscious, you’re using too much sugar. 😉 :smack: Well you knew what I meant. You know…like Sid… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/28 "2005-11-15T10:44:10Z")
I don’t think that Americans generally appreciate (and certainly the OP doesn’t) the visceral horror experienced by Brits faced with the thought of an improperly-made cup of tea; perhaps this will help: You often hear _American_ people complaining how hard it is to find a proper cup of _coffee_ here in the _U.K._ I always thought it was pretty much–put _a spoonful of instant granules_ in cup–add hot water, but obviously it’s more mysterious than that… ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/29 "2005-11-15T11:04:56Z")
My old dad - an Irishman, and they drink far more tea per person than the English - didn’t believe in tea-bags so he simply heaped two spoonsful of tea (when in Ireland: Lyon’s; when in England: PG Tips) into a mug and poured boiling water over it. Add milk to taste. Repeat 25 times a day, more if he was at work. ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/30 "2005-11-15T11:25:33Z")
A mountaineer friend of mine has related the method used by a German climbing partner on the Eiger north face: 1. put water in pan 2. put tea bag in pan 3. put milk powder in pan 4. stir a bit 5. put lid on pan 6. put pan on stove 7. heat pan until not-very-hot 8. drink 9. get all shirty when English climbing partner gets all shirty and exclaims ‘no wonder you lost the war!’ before tipping ‘tea’ down north face. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/31 "2005-11-15T11:30:41Z")
> [@jocularjason](#): > > You often hear British people complaining how hard it is to find a proper cup of tea here in the U.S. I always thought it was pretty much–put tea bag in cup–add hot water, but obviously it’s more mysterious than that. How can I make a cup of tea that a Brit. might find satisfactory. I’ll neatly side step the heat the pot / loose tea / almost boiling water debates and see if I can answer the OP in a different way … 1 - Brits show great brand loyalty to their tea 2 - the way the tea tastes is affected by the water used to make it (& the milk added) result - they will never get a cup of tea which tastes like the tea they get at home anywhere but, well, home. It’s like Irishmen buying Guinness from Warsaw to Buenos Aires then saying it isn’t the same. Annecdotes linked to #1 - wherever I’ve lived in Europe (ahem, on the continent) Tea Bags have been the number one most requested item from visitors or trips to the UK. The ubiquitous Yellow Label Lipton tea bags are just weaker and lower quality, you need two to make a decent mug. Even the Tetley’s you can now find in France don’t _seem_ the same. Running out of home bought PG Tips is a tragedy. linked to #2 - tea brewed in the UK looks brown. Abroad it tends more towards the grey end of the spectrum. If it looks different you assume it tastes different. We’ve convinced ourselves out tea tastes better since we got a water filter jug. Best not to think about how nasty UHT milk is! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/32 "2005-11-15T11:33:35Z")
> [@ticker](#): > > A mountaineer friend of mine has related the method used by a German climbing partner on the Eiger north face: > > 1. put water in pan > 2. put tea bag in pan > 3. put milk powder in pan > 4. stir a bit > 5. put lid on pan > 6. put pan on stove > 7. heat pan until not-very-hot > 8. drink > 9. get all shirty when English climbing partner gets all shirty and exclaims ‘no wonder you lost the war!’ before tipping ‘tea’ down north face. Italian method - boil water in large pasta pan, add one measly weak tea-bag (see aforementioned Lipton’s), continue to boil for a couple of minutes, serve to friend of the British persuasion, get shirty about lack of gratitude shown. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/33 "2005-11-15T11:52:59Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Boiling water from any old metal kettle. > . The good old plastic electric kettle/jug does just fine! ---
**Author:** ![Fridgemagnet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/22d042/32.png) [@Fridgemagnet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fridgemagnet)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/34 "2005-11-15T12:30:17Z")
> [@Cat Jones](#): > > linked to #2 - tea brewed in the UK looks brown. Blame the marketing monkeys. For some reason they think tea should be brown and opaque, and add colouring (usually caramel) to most British teabags. > [@Little Nemo](#): > > Another vote (albeit a colonial one) for not using boiling water to make tea. If the water’s boiling, it’s deoxygenating - the tea will taste flat. You want to heat the water until it’s just below the boiling point. Good point about the deoxygenation (also the reason for using freshly drawn water), but the water _must_ be boiling. The trick is not to overboil it, as that really does make it flat. So important is the temperature of the water that even greater tea pedants than I will carry the teapot to the kettle (rather than the other way around) as the water will lose about 1 degree Celcius a second between boiling and pouring. I totally agree with the points on flavour-peaking and water quality. Brew time and water quality makes a big difference. Pauline McQuirk, the actress who plays Mrs Doyle in [Father Ted](http://www.catharton.com/littlefish/mrsdoyle.htm), prefers to add a little more tea than recommended, and then brew it for a shorter period. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/35 "2005-11-15T14:04:24Z")
What most Irish and British abroad complain about is not the temperature of the water, nor the fact that it is made in a mug rather than a pot, nor do they really care whether it is bag or leaf. What they actually care about is not being able to get any decent brands of tea. Lipton doesn’t count. The Irish will want Barry’s, Bewley’s or Lyons, and will probably take it brewed strong- our tastes run to big flavour, deep amber colour and as much caffeine as you can get. The British will want PG tips, Tetley or Twinings, and will take it weaker. Builders everywhere will take 1 part tea to 3 parts milk, and twelve sugars. ---
**Author:** ![Fromage\_A\_Trois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fromage\_A\_Trois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fromage_A_Trois)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/36 "2005-11-15T14:12:12Z")
What gets me about the difficulty in getting good tea abroad is that it’s not _difficult_. Loads of people here have gone on about loose tea and warming the pot and so on. I don’t do that - perhaps it would be even better if I did. However, I have been complimented on my tea-making abilities by colleagues and family alike. It is easy to make a good cup of tea, one that I would happily drink wherever I received it: 1. Put cold water in kettle, switch it on. 2. Put teabag in cup, with milk and sugar if you wish. 3. When kettle comes to the boil (not before, not after), pour the water into the cup. 4. Leave for a few minutes, with the odd stir and a final squeeze of bag. 5. Remove teabag. 6. Drink nice, easy cup of tea. This may not keep the purists happy - I have better results with milk in first, I know others prefer milk in last. But this will make a nice cup of tea. Maybe not the best in the world, but nice. Earlier this year, I was in the New York Plaza Hotel (its last night before it closed to be refurbished). We’d not been able to have tea the whole week we’d been in the States, so when they asked whether we’d like tea or coffee, we said “tea”. Come on, this is the _New York Plaza_, they _must_ be able to make tea. It’s easy. Nope, it seems they got a big pot of hot water, dangled about 3 Lipton teabags in it and immediately brought it out to be served. There was a slight hint of brown in the water. There was no taste. And **Mangetout** ’s quite right when he mentions the coffee over here. I put the granules in the cup and add hot water (and milk). Is that not sufficient? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Gulo\_gulo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Gulo\_gulo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulo_gulo)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/37 "2005-11-15T14:22:11Z")
> [@Sal Ammoniac](#): > > By the way, does anyone out there use a tea cozy? Because that completely freaks me out. I would happily do unholy things for a tea cozy that doesn’t look like it was made by granny slaves in retirement home. Right now I just use a tea towel but it doesn’t really work. I like to drink my tea piping hot, dammit! ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/38 "2005-11-15T14:34:41Z")
> [@Fridgemagnet](#): > > Blame the marketing monkeys. For some reason they think tea should be brown and opaque, and add colouring (usually caramel) to most British teabags. Wha? Are you serious? ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/39 "2005-11-15T15:00:22Z")
> [@seosamh](#): > > My old dad - an Irishman, and they drink far more tea per person than the English - didn’t believe in tea-bags so he simply heaped two spoonsful of tea (when in Ireland: Lyon’s; when in England: PG Tips) into a mug and poured boiling water over it. Add milk to taste. Repeat 25 times a day, more if he was at work. Your dad must have worn out a urinal or two in his day. And **irishgirl** , you can get Barry’s, Lyons, PG tips, Tetley and Twinings in grocery stores here in Massachusetts. The Tetley is American, and pretty lousy – the lousiest of all, in my opinion – but the rest are imported. Of course, Massachusetts has a huge Irish population. ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/40 "2005-11-15T16:02:46Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > I drink my tea without milk or sugar but I think your friend has a point. Not about the bruising, but the milk will cool off the tea and the sugar will dissolve better in the hotter undiluted tea. So sugar first and milk last. That was my understanding as well; always sugar before milk. Incidentally, my mother (Scottish descent) always threatened to disown me for using sugar. Evidently (to her) it was either milk or lemon, and we didn’t use lemon, and that was that. My family originally came down from the Maritimes in Canada. I go back on vacation every year, and return with my trunk (boot) full of King Cole Tea for the whole family. Bags, unfortunately, but it reminds them of home. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093.md?page=3)